One Moment in Time
by Brownbug
Summary: Master/ Time Lady OC: "Two bitter enemies, only one chance to escape. Tejana, the Doctor's daughter, born from an arranged marriage before her father ever left Gallifrey. And the Master, Gallifrey's most infamous son. Both of them, stranded on Gallifrey on the Last Day of the Time War. So what happens when they need each other to escape from the doom of the Moment?" Set Post-EoT.
1. Chapter 1

_**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Doctor Who or anything remotely related to it.**_

_**SUMMARY: Two bitter enemies, only one chance to escape...Tejanakaturadilena, the Doctor's daughter, born from an arranged marriage before her father ever left Gallifrey. And the Master, Gallifrey's most infamous son. Both of them, s**__**tranded on Gallifrey on the Last Day of the Time War. **_Tejana has travelled on and off with the Doctor and has known and hated the Master all her life. So what happens when they need each other to escape from the impending doom of the Moment?  


_**Set just after "The End of Time", Master/OC.  
**_

* * *

**CHAPTER ONE**

The Doctor staggered on grimly through the snow, the haunting funeral song of the Ood echoing in his head. The pain was intense now, coming in debilitating waves as every cell in his body began to change. He could see the TARDIS up ahead, but in his wavering vision it seemed to be getting further and further away. He wasn't sure he could make it.

Suddenly he stumbled and almost fell, only to feel strong hands catch him and hold him. He didn't even have to look up to know who it was.

"I knew you'd come," he whispered painfully.

"Don't I always?" Tejana responded wryly, curling his arm around her neck and taking his weight. "I could feel your pain halfway across the solar system. What have you done this time?"

The Doctor tried to laugh, but the sound came out as a wheezing cough instead. "Oh, you know, the usual, saving the Universe."

Grasping her hand, he opened the psychic gate they shared and let her see in one blasting flash all that the Master had done and how close the Universe and Time itself had come to disaster.

"Whoa!" she gasped. "Not good!"

"Yeah, you missed all the fun. Where have you been?"

"On the planet Zog, with Jack, trying to talk some sense into him." she said. "I had to pinch his vortex manipulator to get back here quickly."

"He won't be happy about that," the Doctor replied weakly.

"Meh, he doesn't even know," Tejana sniffed. "We had a fight, he went off to some bar. Knowing Jack, he'll meet someone, go on a bender and be out of action for a few days."

The Doctor nodded, acknowledging the truth of this. He didn't let on that he had just dropped in on Jack to say goodbye and had found her prediction to be uncannily accurate.

"Come on, let's get you inside the TARDIS."

Using her own key, she opened the doors and supported him as he limped inside. He moved to the console and set the coordinates. The TARDIS dematerialised and was sent once more spinning into space, orbiting the Earth.

The regeneration was beginning. Tejana could see the golden glow starting to emanate from his skin. He held his hand up in front of his face, examining the eerie light as it grew in intensity. His face was a mask of grief and pain. Tejana badly wanted to hold him, to comfort him, but she knew better than to get too close to a regenerating Time Lord, so she carefully kept her distance.

His eyes met hers, agonised and fearful. "Tejana, everything I said to you at the Master's funeral pyre...I meant every word."

She was weeping now. He had told her he loved her and was proud of her. Throughout all his different regenerations, he had never actually put it into words before. This Doctor was special and she would miss him so very much, whatever came of this change.

"I know," she whispered tearfully.

"I don't want to go!" he cried, his voice a child-like protest.

But it was already too late. The golden light was streaming from his body, growing brighter and brighter, until Tejana had to shield her eyes. There was a huge rushing sound and the Doctor threw back his head, his limbs stiffened in excruciating pain, his facial features beginning to dissolve. Without warning, the light exploded from him in a massive concussion wave, shattering the exterior windows of the TARDIS. Great gouts of flame spewed forth, setting the console room ablaze in a fierce conflagration. The TARDIS was shaking madly, out of control, her silent screams echoing the Doctor's pain.

Tejana was hurled against the wall, the breath knocked out of her lungs. Horrified, she saw one of the coral roof supports come loose above her and begin to fall. Instinctively, she raised her arms to protect her face, knowing that it was useless and she was about to be crushed.

At that moment, she felt the vortex manipulator tighten on her wrist and she was ripped out of time and space, leaving only empty air behind.


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER TWO  
**

She rematerialised by smashing headlong into a concrete floor. With a groan, she just lay there, trying to remember how to breathe, grateful to be alive. Bloody vortex manipulator, it was like travelling in a blender! At least with her old Time Ring, she had managed to get around without having her bones rearranged.

And where in the Universe was she? Somehow, even with her eyes closed, the place felt familiar. Warily, she took a peek, flinching with the effort. Every little bit of her hurt, every nerve and every muscle aching. She didn't recognise the place she had landed. From her prone position on the ground, it appeared to be a particularly featureless, grey-walled room with a very hard floor. Yet the odd sense of de ja vu persisted.

Then, from behind her, a very familiar voice spoke. "Tejana? What the hell are you doing here?"

Energised by shock, she whirled around in disbelief. "The Master!"

He was confined to the far wall in a force field web, spreadeagled in what appeared to be a very uncomfortable position. He was looking very much the worse for wear, the immaculate Master from their days on board _The Valiant _long gone. His hair had gone a distinctive ash-blond colour, the transformation resulting from the shock of his botched resurrection. Instead of a tailored suit, he was wearing a black hoodie, black jeans and black work boots. All of this, including the weary, strained look on his thin face, was familiar to Tejana from the vision the Doctor had shown her of recent events. However, since then, the Master had obviously undergone a severe and prolonged beating, his features bloody and marked by cuts and contusions.

"Oh stars, can my day get any worse?" she grumbled crossly. "Where are we?"

"Yeah, well, my day hasn't exactly been peachy either, sweetheart," he retorted sarcastically. "We're on Gallifrey."

A sick feeling swirled in Tejana's stomach. "Gallifrey?"

"On the Last Day," he continued. "The day your dear old Dad used _The Moment_ to commit genocide on his own people. Ring any bells?"

"But...that's not possible...the War was time-locked!" she gasped. "I can't be here!"

The Master rolled his eyes. "Can't answer that one. I know how I got here, no idea about you though."

"You got drawn back here with Rassilon, you stopped him from killing the Doctor," she recalled, the Doctor's memory vision clear in her mind's eye.

"Not the smartest move I ever made," the Master replied bitterly. "Old Rassilon's not too happy with me, I can tell you."

Tejana felt a twinge of fear. "He's not dead then?"

"Unfortunately, no. So how did you get here? I take it you haven't charged in here to save me, so what happened?"

"The Doctor was regenerating..." she began.

"Regenerating?" he cut in sharply. "Why? He was fine when I left!"

"The old man, Wilf, was stuck in the nuclear chamber. The nuclear bolt had been left running, it reached critical..."

"Aaah, so the Doctor had to go and take his place in the chamber, didn't he?" the Master mocked. "Always playing the hero!"

"I was on the planet Zog with Jack when I felt it start to happen," she continued, ignoring his words. "I used Jack's vortex manipulator to get back to Earth. We were in the TARDIS. He didn't want to regenerate, he'd left it too long, it was like an explosion. The TARDIS was on fire, one of the roof supports was about to fall on me, then the vortex manipulator seemed to kick in on its own and I ended up here."

The Master was about to say something when suddenly there was a noise outside the door.

"Quick! Hide!" he hissed.

Forcing herself to move, she disappeared behind an instrument console. The doors slid open and three men marched into the room. In the distance, Tejana could hear the sound of explosions. With a chill, she realised the Citadel was under attack by the Dalek fleet.

Two of the three men were dressed in the red uniform of the Citadel Guard. The third was resplendently and formally attired in the flowing robes of the Chancellor of Gallifrey. Tejana felt a blaze of hatred in her chest, hot and powerful. She recognised this man from her miserable childhood. There was nobody in Creation she hated more.

"My Lord Master," the man drawled smoothly, coming to a stop in front of the renegade Time Lord.

"Chancellor," the Master returned insolently.

"You will be pleased to know that the Lord President is much recovered from your cowardly attack," the Chancellor said smugly. "He has instructed that I escort you to the Grand Assembly of the High Council of Gallifrey. There you will be restrained and tortured to death before the entire Assembly as punishment for your heinously treasonable acts."

A cruel look passed over the Chancellor's jowly features as he took a step closer to the Master. "Needless to say, I will attend to the torture myself, to ensure that your pain is maximised. It will be my pleasure!"

The Master spat in his face. Furiously, the Chancellor snarled, "Expect no mercy from me, my Lord Master, this I promise you. Guards, take him away!"

"I don't think so," a cold voice interrupted. Without warning, a laser beam arced out, catching each guard in the chest. With a gargled noise, they collapsed on the floor and lay very still. The Chancellor whirled around in shock, to find Tejana facing him, a laser screwdriver targeted on the space between his eyes.

"Tejanakaturadilena!" he choked out in panic.

"Nice shooting!" the Master approved sardonically, hiding his own considerable surprise.

Tejana disregarded him completely. "Hello, Councillor Rohan. Or it seems I should say _Chancellor _Rohan these days."

"What are you doing, child?" the Chancellor demanded, shifting uneasily. "This man is a criminal, guilty of crimes without number. You cannot aid him!"

"It appears you still enjoy torturing others, Lord Rohan," she replied contemptuously, the loathing she felt evident in every line of her body. "Not today though, not if I can help it!"

Before he could answer, she shot him down too.

"Wow!" the Master exclaimed. "My old laser screwdriver, who'd have thought? Of course, they do say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Does Daddy know you've got that?"

"If you want me to rescue you, you'd better _shut up_!" she warned, stepping over to the force field controls.

"Ooh, I'll take that as a no," the Master smirked. "Are they dead?"

"No," she said curtly. "Just stunned."

Careful not to touch the lethal filaments of the force field web, she stepped close to him and began to use the screwdriver to free his left wrist. The Master studied her carefully. She hadn't changed much from the days he had held her captive with the Doctor and Jack on _The Valiant _- long, curly black hair confined in a plait reaching all the way down her back, defiant dark blue eyes set in a fine-boned face with patrician features. Unlike her father, who was eternally predictable, she was an enigma. He remembered the look in her eyes when she had tried to kill him on _The Valiant_. She was just as likely to leave him here, or even kill him herself, as she was to save him.

"So why are you helping me?" he asked, as she went to work on his right wrist.

For a moment she said nothing. Then she replied icily, "Because I hate that man more than anything, more even than you."

"Why didn't you kill him then?" he asked, expecting a Doctor-like answer, something inane about all life being sacred or some such nonsense.

Instead the dark blue eyes locked on to his fiercely and he could see the hatred flaming in their depths. "Because I know he is going to _burn_ and _that_ is what he deserves!"

"Gee, remind me never to get on your bad side!" the Master said derisively. "Oops, forgot, I already am!"

"Are you coming or not?" she snapped, shutting down the force field web as she spoke.

The Master tried to take a step forward, flexing his cramped muscles, but his legs gave out from under him. For a horrifying moment, his skull seemed to show right through the skin of his face, like some nightmarish x-ray.

"Stars!" Tejana whispered in a shocked voice. "You really are dying, aren't you?"

Reaching down, she helped him to his feet, supporting him as he wavered.

"If we don't get out of here soon, we're both going to be dead!" he gritted out. "Last day of Gallifrey and all that."

"I must be crazy to be helping you!" she growled. Raising her left wrist, encircled by Jack's black vortex manipulator, she extended her hand to him. "Grab on then, before I change my mind!"

She felt the warmth of his grasp, took a deep breath and activated the device, fully expecting to be contorted through time once more. However, to her complete and absolute horror, nothing happened.

"Now what?" the Master groaned.

"I don't know!" she replied, frantically tinkering with the device. "All the systems appear to be operational!"

"Give me a look."

For a moment the blonde head and the dark head bent over the vortex manipulator, for all the world like allies rather than enemies. Then the Master looked up, his mouth tightening.

"The device is fine, for a piece of archaic Earth technology. The problem is the Time Lock. The device isn't of Gallifreyan origin, so it was initially not subject to the Lock. But now that it's inside the bubble, it's become part of Gallifrey's history and can't leave."

More distant explosions shook the Citadel. Dust sifted from the ceiling as the ancient building moved and resettled.

"NO! There's got to be a way!" she said fiercely, gripping his hand even more tightly. "I spent years in E-Space thanks to the bloody Time War, I don't intend to die here today!"

The Master grimaced wryly. "Wasn't exactly on my To-Do-List, either. I'm open to suggestions."

Feverishly, Tejana considered the options: all forms of time travel impossible because of the Time Lock, all forms of space travel within this time zone impossible because of the bloody Dalek fleet. How then to leave Gallifrey? _Must find a way, must find a way, must find a way_ – the mantra thrummed insistently in her head, the four beats tapping inside her skull, like a drum...

Gasping in shock, she released the Master's hand, recoiling as though from a poisonous snake. Immediately, the insidious sound in her mind ceased.

"_What?_" he demanded crossly, knowing that for once he had done nothing to deserve the horrified look she was giving him.

"The drums...I heard the drums," she whispered. "You live with that in your head _all the time_?"

For a fleeting moment, a look of pain passed over his features and she thought he was going to accept her unexpected sympathy. But instead he curled his lip scornfully and shrugged, not bothering to answer at all. Shaken to the core, she stared at him. All the terrible things he had done...and yet for anyone to bear that constant noise since childhood...no wonder he was completely insane!

And then, out of nowhere, the answer came to her. There _was_ another way to leave Gallifrey and she had the two necessary elements right here in this room.

"Oh yes!" she crowed delightedly. "YES!"

With that, she leapt over to the supine body of the Lord Chancellor and began going through his voluminous robes.

"We are getting out of here and this disgusting old pile of excrement is going to help us do it!"

The Master shook his head, not understanding what she was talking about.

"He's the _Chancellor_!" she said impatiently. "Since the Keeper of The Matrix got taken over by the Valeyard, they never again filled the position. His duties were handed over to the Chancellor, who now carries...the Key of Rassilon! And here it is!"

Triumphantly, she ripped the Key from the chain which held it around Lord Rohan's neck, careless of any hurt she did the unconscious Chancellor. It did not look at all special, just an old iron key, no different from millions of others which opened all manner of doors across the Universe.

But the Master smiled, light dawning in his eyes. "The Seventh Gate!"

"Few know how to summon it these days," Tejana replied excitedly. "But you do! I know that you did it once before, when the Valeyard had the Doctor on trial. We can escape into The Matrix in our physical form."

"If it's that easy, why hasn't Rassilon done it before now?" the Master frowned. "He created The Matrix, it should have been the first thing he thought of."

"Because of the Time Lock! The Doctor prevented them from passing from this time to any other...and The Matrix exists in a completely different time continuum to Gallifrey. You effectively need to time travel to get there!"

"All time and no time...past, present and future, all co-existing at once, the perfect paradox," the Master muttered, his mind working lightning fast as usual. "But you and I are anomalies here...neither of us are supposed to be here. My current self is at the end of the Universe as Professor Yana and you are stuck in E-Space. So we are not subject to the Time Lock and can still pass through the Gate. But the question still remains...where do we go then? The Gate, if summoned inside The Matrix, will only take us back where we originated from – Gallifrey. It won't help us to get stranded in The Matrix."

Tejana paced up and down, thinking hard. She had completely forgotten it was the Master she was talking to and was simply appreciating the swift and complete comprehension of another Time Lord. While working with Torchwood, she had become used to dealing with the slower minds of her human friends, which tended to be very limiting.

"The old records in the Archives of Gallifrey speak of the Heart of the Matrix, the place where Rassilon retreated to and dwelt after he was deposed in the Ancient Times. The writings are very unclear and obscure, but they refer several times to something loosely translated as the "Pathway Among the Stars". I've always believed it's a Time Corridor, situated where two or more ley lines cross, sort of a back door for Rassilon."

"You _believe_?" the Master growled. "But you don't know. So we're going in there blind on the strength of some thesis you did at the Academy?"

Tejana's eyes flashed angrily. "You _said_ you were open to suggestions! I haven't heard you come out with anything better, oh-so-brilliant-genius! Maybe you'd like me to wait here while you go and check the facts with your good friend Rassilon?"

The Master glared at her for a moment, but then jumped lightly to his feet and went across to the unconscious guards. His lithe movements reminded Tejana of a stalking panther, graceful but deadly. His strength had obviously returned, even if only temporarily.

"We'll be needing these then," he said shortly, tossing her a black package he took from the first guard's belt. Tejana recognised it as a survival kit, issued to all Gallifreyan military personnel in times of war. It contained rations, blankets and some medical supplies. Like a TARDIS, it was bigger on the inside than the outside. She fastened it to her own belt as the Master appropriated the second guard's kit for himself.

"And we'd better get out of here too," he continued, his tone brusque. "I need to concentrate to summon the Gate and Rassilon will have his people here looking for me soon."

Tejana nodded silently and followed him to the door.


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER THREE**

The Master and Tejana slipped stealthily out of the door and found themselves faced with a featureless grey corridor.

"We're in the holding cell complex beneath the Citadel," the Master said in a low voice. "Come on, this way."

With that, he began to weave a path unobtrusively through the seemingly endless passageways without hesitation. Tejana shadowed him closely, wondering how he knew so unerringly which direction to turn. Either he was extremely familiar with the complex or he had memorised the progression when they had brought him down here, despite the beating they had given him. Knowing the Master, either theory was possible.

They were very fortunate that the corridors seemed to be deserted. Every now and then, another huge explosion could be heard, far above them on the surface of Gallifrey, as the Daleks scored another direct hit on the Citadel Dome. The walls shuddered as though in pain, bleeding showers of dust and chunks of stone to litter the floor. Tejana supposed that most of the Dome's personnel, both Time Lord and ordinary Gallifreyan, must be occupied trying to somehow stave off the annihilation of their civilization.

Their luck could not hold forever though. Before they could reach a place of safety, a high-pitched nasal voice rang out behind them, "Halt in the name of Gallifrey!"

Both Tejana and the Master turned, to see a thin, sallowly-handsome man in the bronze robes of a Councillor. He was holding a side-arm pointed directly at them.

_Oh stars, _Tejana thought savagely, _What is this, old home week?_

She knew the man. His name was Tabor and he had been in her class at the Academy. He had been one of the more popular, if less intelligent students, largely due to his impeccable family lineage. He had also been an inveterate bully. Once the Doctor had been exiled to Earth for interfering in the affairs of the Universe and her family had fallen into disgrace, Tabor had done his best to humiliate her in every conceivable way. It was too much to hope that he wouldn't recognise her. His eyes gleamed in a triumphant, predatory way as he looked her up and down.

"My Lady Tejana, what a surprise! How lovely to see you again!" he leered. "But who is your companion? Surely not the Lord Master, the most wanted criminal Gallifrey has ever known? You wouldn't be assisting him to escape, now would you? Such an act would be high treason!"

"Trust you to be skulking below ground while everyone else is defending our planet, you little worm!" Tejana hissed contemptuously. "Go to hell, Tabor!"

Tabor's eyes narrowed in murderous fury as he trained his weapon on her. "You're going to be _VERY _sorry I came across you, my Lady," he snarled.

Unfortunately for him, in his fixation with Tejana, he had made the massive and fatal mistake of overlooking the Master. A blazing lightning-strike of blue-white energy caught him in the chest, blasting him backwards to sprawl further up the corridor. The Master laughed softly, even as his skin became transparent once more, the awful skull super-imposing itself across his features.

Tejana shuddered. "I wish you would stop doing that!" she complained crossly. "You're _killing _yourself!"

"Maybe if you gave me back my laser screwdriver I wouldn't have to!" he snapped back, his expression surly.

"What, this one?" she asked sweetly, producing the slender gold and silver device and displaying it to him. "Wouldn't help you. Isomorphic controls...which means, this time, it only works for _me_! Like this..."

With that, she pointed the device back the way they had come, just in time to stun two guards who had come running to investigate the commotion.

The Master, recognising the words as his own from their time on _The Valiant_, rolled his eyes sarcastically. "Oh, ha ha!"

"There's going to be more of them," she said. "Let's go!"

A low moan from Tabor's crumpled form indicated that he was beginning to regain consciousness. The Master quickly squatted beside the other Time Lord, flexing his hands, the sparkles of life energy still fizzing and crackling between his fingers. Tabor looked up at him in fear.

"This is just to make sure she's _not _sorry you came across us..." the Master said conversationally.

Then he stood almost casually and kicked Tabor brutally in the head with his heavy work boot.

"_Now _we can go," he told Tejana, as Tabor's body went limp once more.

"You didn't have to do that!" she protested.

The Master was already moving up the corridor. "Yeah, I did," he tossed back over his shoulder matter-of-factly. "I didn't like the way he looked at you."

Tejana shook her head incredulously. The Master had been trying to kill her and the Doctor, on and off, for most of her life, and now he was taking offence at the way someone looked at her! Honestly, she didn't think there was anyone more unpredictable in the entire Universe.

Close by, she could hear the pounding of feet as more guards began to close in on them. Rassilon must _really _be ticked off with the Master, she thought wryly, as she began to run again. They were both going to be in serious trouble if they were caught.

They rounded the corner into another passageway, only to hear more pursuit up ahead, coming towards them. Tejana held the screwdriver in front of her defensively, turning this way and that, trying to think of a strategy. There were too many of them to fight off with a single laser device and the Master couldn't afford to squander any more life energy. The corridor was long, doorless and well-lit. There was nowhere to run and nowhere to hide.

"Uh-oh!" she breathed, realising they were trapped.

The Master had other ideas. With another well-aimed kick from his booted foot, he loosened a panel in the wall and it fell to the floor with a clang, revealing the dark, gaping maw of a ventilation shaft. Without hesitation, he swung himself inside.

"Come on!" he ordered, disappearing from view.

Tejana followed him, snatching up the panel as she went, swiftly tugging it back into place behind her. Not a moment too soon, as the patrol of Citadel Guard skidded around the corner and thundered up the corridor.

"Find him!" their Captain ordered sharply. "He's here somewhere! My Lord President wants the Master's head, now!"

The patrol moved off down the corridor, marching quickly, obviously very motivated by the thought of Rassilon's displeasure. Tejana breathed a sigh of relief.

"We'll follow the shaft," the Master's voice came softly out of the darkness. "They won't think to look for us in here."

Tejana held up the laser screwdriver, its pale white light gently illuminating the narrow metal tunnel. The Master was already crawling along the shaft a fair way ahead, not bothering to look back to see if she was coming. She shivered a little. She wasn't good with enclosed places, but in this case she had no choice. The Master was her ticket out of here and she had to stick with him.

The situation was spookily familiar, she thought with cynical amusement as she began to move. Following an irritable Time Lord without question into a ridiculously dangerous set of circumstances while being pursued by angry people with guns. How many times had she done that before? The only really surreal difference this time was that it was the Master she was following, not the Doctor. And, unlike the Doctor, she could never trust the Master, she had to remember that. She had to watch her back at all times.

The cold metal hurt her knees and a dull sense of claustrophobia made it difficult to breathe. Doggedly, Tejana put the glowing screwdriver between her teeth and continued to push forward as fast as she could, careful to keep the Master in view up ahead. The journey seemed to take forever. It could have been hours or merely minutes, Tejana never knew.

At last, however, the Master stopped and she caught up with him. In the dim light, she saw that he had located another inspection hatch. He put his fingers to his lips to indicate silence and they both listened. There was no sound or movement from below, so the Master shoved the hatch open. They appeared to be above a small administrative office of some kind, furnished with a desk piled high with papers. It was empty. The Master dropped lightly into the room, with Tejana close behind him.

"This will do nicely," he approved. "As long as we barricade the door, I should be able to summon the Gate without interruption."

Together they seized the desk and heaved it across the floor to jam the door shut, piles of paper scattering everywhere.

"Now, give me the Key!" he commanded in a peremptory tone.

"A 'please' every now and then wouldn't go astray," she commented acidly, handing it over.

The Master ignored her and stood in the middle of the room. Slowly, he stretched his neck muscles by moving his head in a circle. Then, holding the Key of Rassilon in both hands in front of him, he closed his eyes and tilted his head back, concentration written across his features.

Tejana watched in fascination, her eyes reluctantly drawn to the strong, lean column of his neck. For an instant she had a flashback to the dangerous attraction she had felt for him on _The Valiant_, only to squash it immediately once more. _Damn the man!_ Why couldn't he have regenerated into another old professor type or someone as unattractive as in the Fifth Doctor's day? That beard back then had been really, really bad! But no, he had to go and regenerate into good-looking "Harold Saxon". And now, if she was really honest, "Hoodie Master" was even more attractive than "Saxon Master" – that blonde hair really gave him an edge.

The Master frowned and Tejana jumped guiltily, praying he hadn't somehow read her mind.

But something else was troubling him. "The Time Lock is resisting me," he muttered. "This isn't going to be as easy as I thought."

Tejana tensed, all her previous musings forgotten. Their plan was all very well in theory, but what if it couldn't be put into practice? What if they couldn't escape into The Matrix?

The Master planted his feet more firmly and pushed his mind harder, the muscles in his neck cording with the effort. The ghastly, grinning blue-white skull flared across his features again, frightening in its intensity..._once, twice, three times_. Tejana took a step forward, every instinct crying out to stop him before he killed himself. But if he couldn't summon the Seventh Gate, they were both dead, so she forced herself to hold back. Out of nowhere, wind began to blow in the small room, faster and faster, swirling the papers into a cyclone of confusion. Tejana grabbed on to a desk to keep her feet as a howling, screaming noise filled the air.

Still the Master concentrated, his arms flung wide now, his face fluctuating with the dreadful skull at an alarming rate.

At last, just in front of him, tiny blue sparkles seemed to coalesce, forming and reforming, until they solidified into the recognisable shape of an old wooden door. The wind and the high-pitched noise disappeared and the Master slumped forward, bent over at the waist, hands on his knees, gasping for air.

Without stopping to think, Tejana ran to him and supported him, just as she would have done for the Doctor. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine!" he growled breathlessly, pulling away from her to stand unaided, clearly not wanting to show any weakness.

Tejana gazed at the door in wonder. "You did it!" she said in sheer relief. "But...it looks just like an ordinary door!"

"What were you expecting, pillars of fire?" he inquired sarcastically.

She shot him a withering look, all her momentary sympathy completely dissipating. Apparently recovered now, he stepped forward to the door, holding the Key of Rassilon, which he fitted into the lock. The Key turned easily.

"Ready?" he asked evenly.

"Do it," she responded.

With one quick motion, he flung the door wide. All Tejana could see beyond the opening was darkness. The wind had begun again, only this time it was a sucking vortex, drawing everything into the innocuous-looking doorway. Tejana resisted the pull, an ominous premonition assailing her. _Something bad is waiting in there_, she thought with a stab of fear. Suddenly the warm, lighted room on doomed Gallifrey seemed a hundred times safer than that unknown darkness.

The Master stood on the threshold, struggling to hold the door open. "Come on!" he yelled. "The Time Lock is trying to force the Gate closed. I can't hold it much longer!"

Still Tejana hesitated, paralysed by the sense of evil coming from the doorway.

"ANA!" the Master screamed. "NOW!"

That got her attention. Making a snap decision, she threw herself across the room towards the Gate. The Master reached for her, she felt his arm around her waist and then they both tumbled through the doorway into blackness. The last sound Tejana heard was the old wooden door slamming behind them with ominous finality, before she lost consciousness.


	4. Chapter 4

**CHAPTER FOUR**

The first thing she noticed when awareness slowly seeped back into her brain was that she was lying on some sharp, stinging gravel. The second thing was that she was very cold. With a moan, she rolled over, squinting in the grey half-light. The Master sat a short distance away, his knees drawn up to his chest as he tried to shake off the effect of the Gate.

"Welcome to The Matrix," he said. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine."

Carefully, she sat up, her head spinning dizzily. They appeared to be atop a flat-topped rocky hill of some sort.

"Yeah? Well, you nearly got us both killed, dithering about like that!" he said wrathfully. "Leave it to a woman!"

Tejana thought back to the moment when he had opened the Gate. The eerie feeling of dread seemed to have vanished for now, but the memory of it still troubled her.

Something else was also niggling at her. "Back at the Gate..." she said quietly. "You called me Ana. My mother used to call me that."

He shrugged, not meeting her eyes. "I know. I was there."

The Doctor had told Tejana that he and the Master had still been good friends when she was an infant, that the Master had even rocked her cradle, once upon a time. Considering all that had happened since then, it was a difficult concept for her to get her mind around.

Tejana's mother, Melana, had died long ago, before the Doctor had left Gallifrey to go wandering the stars. It had been an arranged marriage between two noble Gallifreyan families. The Doctor had never loved his wife, but he had felt a sense of responsibility and duty towards her. Rassilon had banked on that – he had resurrected Melana towards the end of the Time War in an attempt to control the Doctor's actions, an attempt which had failed.

"She was there today, somewhere on Gallifrey," Tejana said sadly. "Waiting to die, like all the others. Waiting to die _again_!"

The Master nodded. "Rassilon brought her with him to the Naismith mansion on Earth, to taunt the Doctor. I saw her then. I don't know what happened to her after we returned to Gallifrey. I kind of had my own problems at the time."

With that, he stood and dusted himself off, before walking to the edge of the plateau to survey the terrain. "Anyway, Tejana's too much of a mouthful, so Ana it is," he said over his shoulder.

Tejana felt an adrenalin shot of pure anger at his arrogance and presumption. "Fine!" she retorted, her voice like pure ice. "You want to walk down memory lane, then that's just what we'll do...Koschei!"

Much to her satisfaction, the Master's entire body stiffened with fury at the sound of the name he had gone by in those long ago days. "My name..." he snarled bitterly. "_Is The Master!_"

For a moment, she thought she might be on the receiving end of one of his energy blasts, but he kept his back to her and did her no harm, even though she could see the blue-white light sparkling between his fingers.

She sighed and climbed to her feet, starting to take in her surroundings. She had never physically been inside The Matrix before, but she understood enough of the theory to know that, as a virtual construct, the landscape could take any form at all. The hill on which they had materialised overlooked a blasted and barren plain, covered in rocky outcrops and deep, treacherous crevices and ravines. Minimal vegetation was evident, the soil a scorched charcoal where little could grow. It was apparently getting on towards evening, the overcast sky beginning to darken further as the double sun sank lower and lower towards the distant horizon.

"This place..." she murmured hesitantly. "It seems so familiar..."

"It should." the Master returned, his harsh voice startling her. "It's a replica of the Death Zone on Gallifrey."

He was right. Suddenly it all clicked into place. She had been to the Death Zone long ago with the Fifth Doctor. All of the previous incarnations of the Doctor, except the Fourth, had been there too, together with their companions. They had been snatched up by the Time Scoop to play the Game of Rassilon. The Master had also been present, summoned like the rest of them. The object had been to reach the Tower of Rassilon at the centre of the Zone. The prize had supposedly been Rassilon's secret of immortality. Only, they were all being manipulated by President Borusa, who had wanted immortality for himself. Tejana still shuddered when she remembered the torment in Borusa's eyes when he realised he was to live forever, encased in stone, Rassilon's little touch of irony.

"So...if this is a replica of the Death Zone..." she said. "The Heart of the Matrix must be..."

"The Tower of Rassilon," the Master finished her sentence. "And there it is, far away on the horizon."

She looked where he was pointing and both hearts sank as she saw the black spire she remembered.

"Looks like we have to play the Game of Rassilon again," he said grimly. "Let's hope there are no other competitors this time."

"But it will take days to reach the Tower!" she cried. "This is the Last Day of Gallifrey. The Doctor will use _The Moment _and the Time Lords will die. This place will unravel like a bad piece of knitting! We don't have time!"

"You said it yourself, The Matrix is on a completely different time continuum to Gallifrey. If you spent a day here and returned back through the Gate, you would find that maybe only a minute had passed on Gallifrey," he explained calmly. "Having said that, I have no idea of the exact ratio, it changes all the time. So I don't know how long we do have."

"Come on then, let's get going!" she urged in alarm. "It's getting dark!"

"I need to eat first." He sat on a rock and pulled out his ration pack. "I am _so _hungry."

The military survival pack contained a month's worth of food tablets, together with corresponding water sachets. Tejana knew that each tablet, once swallowed, expanded to fill the stomach, providing both the nutrient content and hunger satisfaction of a three course meal. As she watched, the Master quickly and efficiently devoured five tablets, washed down with a swig of water. Tejana frowned as she realised the tremendous loss of life energy he had undergone to require so much food. The intake of nourishment was energising him. Already his face looked less gaunt and drawn.

"Are you eating?" he demanded.

She shook her head. "I'm not hungry."

"Better get started then."

They managed to trek for an hour before sunset. The terrain was incredibly difficult, with slopes of scree which slid away under their feet, treacherous patches of boggy ground which they needed to avoid and deep impassable crevices which had to be skirted around. It grew progressively colder and colder until Tejana could hardly feel her hands and feet.

As the light began to fail, the Master called a halt. "We'll have to stop for the night, get some sleep and start again first thing in the morning."

"We can't stop!" she protested, jumping up and down on the spot in an attempt to keep warm. "We don't have time. What if the Doctor uses _The Moment_?"

"If we don't, we'll end up in a bog or a ravine and die anyway!" he snapped. "Either that or we'll freeze to death."

Much as it galled her to admit it, Tejana knew he was right. She was exhausted. It had been a hell of a day. It was strange to think that just this morning she had been having that stupid argument with Jack. He had been such a mess since the whole 456 thing on Earth. All he wanted to do was to lose himself in booze and sex to try and forget the things he had been forced to do, the people he had lost. She had been trying to talk him into coming back to Earth, to help her rebuild Torchwood with Gwen and Martha and Mickey. All he had wanted to do was to try to get her into bed. They had descended into a blazing row and a lot of hurtful things had been said. Looking back, all she wished for now was a chance to make it right with him, to say she was sorry.

"We'd better try to start a fire," she said flatly.

They managed to scavenge a few paltry, dessicated sticks, enough to start a meagre blaze with the laser screwdriver. Then they pulled out the shiny silver thermal blankets and huddled down in the lee of a giant rock formation, trying to find some shelter from the bitter wind. Tejana found a spot some distance from the Master and wrapped the blanket tightly around herself, trying vainly to keep the cold out.

"You know, I think Rassilon must have a bit of an ego problem," the Master spoke up thoughtfully.

"Oh yeah?" she responded, her teeth chattering. "Why's that?"

"The way he names everything after himself. The Tower of Rassilon, the Key of Rassilon, the Game of Rassilon, Rassilon's Imprimatur, the Harp of Rassilon, the Crown of Rassilon...it just goes on and on. What a tosser."

Tejana felt a hysterical urge to giggle. The very idea of the Master finding someone else arrogant, given his own history, struck her as extremely funny. Not to mention his unconscious use of human slang, no doubt picked up during his recent sojourn on Earth.

"What?" he snapped.

The bubble of merriment grew too large to suppress and she burst out into a peal of helpless laughter. "I'm sorry. That's just really funny!"

To her surprise, the Master laughed too. Not his usual fiendishly mocking chuckle, but real warm amusement. "So you can still laugh," he said ironically. "I was beginning to wonder."

She sobered up quickly, shudders of cold beginning to wrack her body. "Not a lot to laugh about right now."

The other Time Lord eyed her critically. "You're freezing," he said. "Come over here. You'll be a lot warmer if we share the blankets."

Tejana didn't move, not at all sure that sharing a bed with the Master in any capacity was a good idea.

"It's all right," he growled impatiently. "I'm not going to eat you."

"Is that what you said to those poor people in the wasteland on Earth?"

"I was hungry. They were human cattle, good for nothing else."

"You were _married_ to a human!" she reminded him, appalled afresh at his callousness.

He shrugged in an uninterested way. "Lucy served her purpose, nothing more."

"She managed to screw things up for you, though, didn't she? First she shot you, then she somehow sabotaged your resurrection," Tejana retorted. "Maybe you should have treated her better."

The Master glared at her. "Are you coming over here or not? Unless you'd rather freeze to death? Your choice."

Tejana was beginning to feel the numbness which she recognised as the first signs of hypothermia. Wearily, she picked up her blanket and trudged across to settle next to him. He slid his arm around her and pulled her close to his side, arranging both blankets snugly around them. Immediately she was enveloped in a comfortable, radiating warmth.

"Stars!" she murmured in concern. "Your skin is burning. You must be seeping life energy at a fantastic rate!"

"Yeah, well, my loss is your gain," he said shortly. "Go to sleep."

Lulled by his body heat, her head began to droop. She wondered what would happen to the Master once they made it out of The Matrix. He was so ill...maybe he would let the Doctor help him this time. Probably not, though. He would most likely disappear again, until they thought he was gone for good, and then turn up like a bad penny, wreaking havoc somewhere. That was the usual pattern.

Assuming, of course, that the Doctor was OK. She didn't even know if he had completed his regeneration safely and the TARDIS hadn't exactly been in great shape when Tejana last saw her either. She tried to feel for the Doctor's mind using the psychic link they shared, but could find nothing. The only Gallifreyan mind she could sense was the Master, sitting alongside her. She knew that was probably a result of the Time Lock, but she couldn't help worrying. She was still turning it over in her head when she unexpectedly dropped off to sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

_**Author's Note: To madasmonty, thanks for sticking with me throughout this story, it's my first fan-fic, so I appreciate it :0) !**_

* * *

**CHAPTER FIVE**_  
_

_She was in pitch black darkness, lying on a narrow metal cot. Her arms were secured behind her head, heavy manacles encircling her wrists and chained to the wall. She was wearing only a thin, inadequate shift and she was cold. Her stomach rumbled, as though she had not eaten for days._

_A small part of her, sane, adult and rational, recognised that this was a nightmare, the same one which had plagued her over and over for more than half her life. With a feeling of dread, she waited for it to play itself out yet again, painful and unstoppable._

_The rest of her remained the stubborn, wilful, terrified near-child she had been back then, determined not to give in, no matter what._

_The cell door swung open, as it always did, the bright light blinding her. Two guards entered, released her manacle chain from the wall, and marched her out of the cell, down the corridor to the Punishment Room._

_Councillor Rohan was waiting for her, as he always was. A younger Rohan, this one, than she and the Master had recently encountered, his eyes lit with feverish, lustful anticipation, his fleshy lips avid, his pudgy hands trembling with glee, already flexing the brutal whip._

"_Ah, Lady Tejana," he purred smoothly. "Ready for the next phase of your re-education program?"_

_Tejana remained silent as the guards secured her wrists above her head. She never gave Rohan the satisfaction of words, it was the one defiance still left to her and she clung to it like a lifeline. For a second, one of the guards caught her eye and she read sorrow and sympathy there. But none would dare to go against the ruling of the High Council of Gallifrey, even such a ruling as this._

"_Leave us!" Rohan ordered and reluctantly the guards complied._

"_So...Lady Tejana..." he drawled. "Have you changed your mind regarding the nature of your punishment?"_

_Tejana tensed in revulsion as he reached out his hand, as he always did in her nightmare, and trailed it down her cheek, past the slender column of her neck, sliding like a slug under the bodice of her shift to lewdly fondle her breast. With a supreme effort of will, she kept her face impassive, eyes staring blankly at the opposite wall. Rohan smiled lasciviously and ran his other hand slowly up her thigh under her short skirt and forced it between her legs into her most private place. Tejana could feel his fat fingers moving and prayed that she would die, horror twisting her soul. But outwardly, she gave no sign._

"_Nothing to say?" he asked cruelly, eventually tiring of the fun. "Soon you will beg me. If not today, then maybe tomorrow, yes? Or the day after that. We have all the time in the world."_

_And then he moved behind her and began to swing the whip. Over and over, the lash savaged her back, already badly lacerated from previous punishments. Ten lashes were meticulously meted out, each one counted aloud by her triumphant torturer. The pain was unbelievable, the wounds burning like acid, the blood staining her garment and dripping to the floor below. But she would not cry out, would not, WOULD NOT – Doctor, where are you? Doctor, help me, I can't, I can't...Doctor, PLEASE!_

Someone was shaking her hard, so hard her teeth nearly rattled in her head.

"Ana, wake up! Ana!"

Temporarily disoriented by the dream, it took her a minute to realise she was still in The Matrix and it was the Master who was shaking her.

"All right, already! I'm awake!"

Fiery orange light was beginning to creep over the horizon, indicating that dawn was very close. In the amber haze, she saw that the Master was standing in front of her, his fists clenched at his sides, his expression dark with complete fury.

"What the _HELL _was that?"

Confused, she snapped back, "A nightmare, what do you think?"

"No, that was no nightmare, that was a _memory_. That really happened!" he retorted, barely keeping his rage in check. "That filthy little pervert was _touching _you!"

Tejana's head shot up in complete horror as she finally understood what he was saying. He knew! Somehow the Master knew what she had dreamed. How was it possible? Then she remembered opening her mind to search for the Doctor just before falling asleep. She had felt the Master's mind beside her – somehow she must have linked with him. Dreaming such a powerful nightmare so close to another Time Lord's mind in the Heart of the Matrix...oh gods, if she had been dream-sharing with the Master, he must have seen everything she saw, felt everything she felt! That terrible time was the most closely guarded secret in her life. Not even the Doctor knew of it. And now the awful, shameful, degrading events had been laid bare, to none other than her father's oldest enemy. Her humiliation was so intense she dropped her face to her knees, unable to speak.

The Master swore violently. "What happened? You were hardly more than a child!"

"There _are _no children on Gallifrey, you should know that better than most," she managed to respond bitterly. "You know the story already, anyway. I stole a Time Ring and escaped from the Academy to travel with the second Doctor. But the Time Lords caught up with us, put the Doctor on trial for interfering with the affairs of the Universe. He had enemies in the High Council who wanted to see him condemned to death, but the sentence was commuted and he was exiled to Earth instead. Which left me alone, defenceless and vulnerable on Gallifrey. My family was disgraced, our friends had betrayed us, like you, or were too scared to help me. Those same enemies on the High Council arranged for me to be 're-educated' and gave me to Councillor Rohan to administer the corporal punishment. The rest of it was just his own added little twist!"

"He didn't...?" the Master began.

"No!" she cut in, before he could complete the question. "He offered me that as an alternative to the beatings, wanted me to beg for it, but I never would! I never would."

"And you never told the Doctor?"

"What good would it have done?" she demanded painfully. "It wouldn't have changed anything."

She was completely heart-sick that she had unwittingly given the Doctor's greatest enemy the perfect ammunition to hurt him. And the Master would find a way to use it where it hurt the most, that was his particular talent. The only thing she didn't understand was why he seemed so angry. Was it pity? The Master had experienced a lousy childhood on Gallifrey too – was he feeling sorry for her? Pride stiffened her spine – he was the last person in the Universe she wanted pity from!

"Why do you even care?" she accused. "It's not like you're an innocent when it comes to torturing people. What about what you did to Jack on _The Valiant_?"

"I've never tortured children!" the Master said through gritted teeth. "And as for your handsome Captain Jack, I'd kill him another eight hundred times over if I got the chance!"

"He's not _my_ Captain Jack!" she returned, anger overcoming her shame.

"And just so you know, I've never needed to force a woman either!" he snarled. "So don't you _ever _compare me to that piece of filth, Rohan!"

Tejana remembered the scores of women who had queued up to sleep with him during the Year That Never Was, willingly offering themselves to him despite the cruel devastation he had inflicted on their planet, competing and striving to catch his attention. She also remembered how he had maliciously flaunted each new conquest before his human wife, Lucy Saxon, delighting in the hurt he had caused.

"If I had known the truth, back on Gallifrey, I'd have painted the room with that whore-son's blood before we left!" he finished savagely.

With that, he turned his back on her and began to angrily kick dust over the smoking remains of their fire.

_The Master as protector_, she thought wearily as she folded up the blankets, _that was a new one_.

Neither of them spoke again as they quickly ate and then recommenced their long trek. The Master strode ahead, leaving her to trail along in his wake. It was a miserable day. Once the double sun rose into the orange Gallifreyan sky, the heat began to intensify, beating down on their backs, but also rising from the arid, parched ground. Soon it felt like travelling in an oven. Heat-demons seemed to writhe and dance obscenely on the horizon, only to disappear once a direct gaze fell upon them.

Tejana took off her jacket and top, stripping down to the thin camisole she wore beneath. Soon the thin material was dripping with sweat. The brilliant light hurt her unprotected eyes and a nasty headache pounded in her brain.

The Master said not one word to her the whole day, always keeping slightly ahead, an intentional distance between them. She knew she should have felt relieved, but oddly it just made her feel lonely. Somehow she had gotten used to their constant bickering and missed it. She imagined how terrible it would be to be stuck in this god-forsaken place all alone. The Master wasn't the ideal companion, but he was certainly better than nothing.

He had taken off his hoodie and his red undershirt and tied them around his waist. Even from a distance, Tejana could see the perspiration gleaming on his naked skin. It worried her. The heat was bad enough for her, but for someone with his elevated skin temperature it must be close to unbearable. But he didn't stop or slow down, and even if he had, there was nothing she could have done to help him.

At last the shadows lengthened into late afternoon and the double sun sank low again towards the northern horizon. The heat haze seemed to lift off the ground and a blessedly cool breeze began to blow. Tejana held her long heavy plait of hair in one hand and allowed the cool air to refresh the back of her neck with a sigh of pleasure.

The relief was not to last, however. The evening cool soon developed into creeping cold and from there into bone-deep chill. Tejana huddled once more into her jacket, realising that this night was going to be an icy repeat of the one before. Silently she cursed Rassilon. Legend said that he had retreated to physically dwell in The Matrix, his own creation, after he had been deposed as Lord President of Gallifrey millennia ago. But who would want to live here, in this blasted wilderness? Why couldn't he have created a beautiful garden or a lovely countryside? The Master was right, Rassilon was a tosser.

Up ahead, the other Time Lord had finally halted and for the first time all day, turned to look for her. _Serve him right if I'd fallen into a bog_, she thought with childish irritation, _not that he'd probably care._

As it turned out, he had found a sheltered place to camp for the night. There were even some shallow indentations in a wall of rock, almost big enough to be small caves, which would provide some shelter against the inhospitable weather. Even as they got a fire going in the mouth of the largest cave, the temperature dropped to an alarming degree and it began to snow.

The Master sat with his back to the wall and pulled out some more of the nutrition tablets. He looked awful, this thin face drawn and strained. Given their previous discussion, Tejana didn't know what to say to him, so she said nothing.

"So...how is old Captain Jack?" he asked suddenly, his voice hoarse but as mocking as ever. "You two shacked up together yet or what?"

"Jack's fine," she lied. "And it's none of your business."

He raised his eyebrows. "That sounds like a no. So what were you doing with him on a sordid little planet like Zog while the Doctor was regenerating?"

Tejana glared at him, thinking that maybe his silence was preferable after all. "I've been working with Torchwood since we left _The Valiant_, if you must know."

The Master nodded, but didn't pursue the subject. "Come here. Let's get some sleep."

She hesitated briefly once more, but the memory of last night's warmth was much too enticing. _After all, it isn't as if I have anything to hide anymore_, she thought ruefully. So she nestled in next to him and pulled up the blankets. She watched the snow falling in the firelight and listened to his even breathing and before long she drifted off to sleep.

* * *

_She was in pitch black darkness, lying on a narrow metal cot. Her arms were secured behind her head, heavy manacles encircling her wrists and chained to the wall. She was wearing only a thin, inadequate shift and she was cold. Her stomach rumbled, as though she had not eaten for days._

_She felt a dull sense of resignation. It was the nightmare again, doomed to repeat itself over and over and over again, exactly the same every time, never changing. And always, she had to live it again until the very end._

_But this time something was different. She was not alone in the dark, she could sense another presence. Alarmed, she tried to sit up. Outside, she could hear the marching feet of the guards as they drew closer, coming to take her to Rohan._

"_It's all right," said a calm, soothing, almost hypnotic voice out of the darkness. "I'm here with you. You're safe now. They can't get past me. Nothing can get past me. Sleep now...sleep..."_

_Tejana felt all her fear slip away at the sound of the voice. She lay back, feeling watched over and protected. Best of all, she no longer felt alone._

_The pounding of the guards feet had faded and instead, in the air surrounding her, she could hear the faint echo of a drum beat. One, two, three, four...one, two, three, four...one, two, three, four...to the sound of the comforting rhythm, she fell back into an untroubled sleep._

The Master felt the peaceful unconsciousness take her and gave a small smile of satisfaction. He removed his fingers from her temple, settled her more comfortably against his chest and closed his eyes.


	6. Chapter 6

**_Author's Note: OK, that was a tricky chapter to write :(. I couldn't find much canonical Gallifreyan language around the place, so had to make up my own, so apologies to any Gallifreyan scholars out there. Hope you enjoy._**

* * *

**CHAPTER SIX**

Tejana woke slowly and luxuriously, feeling completely rested. For a second, with her eyes still closed, she thought she was in her bedroom on board the Doctor's TARDIS. But then, under her ear, she heard the steady pulse of a double heartbeat, so similar to her own. With a start, she realised her head was pillowed on the Master's chest. He was not yet awake, his face serene in repose. In his sleep, he held her against him closely, both arms wrapped firmly around her. Tejana felt the tingling awareness stir deep inside her and the temptation was strong just to lie there and enjoy the sensation of his hard body against the length of her own.

Then the memory of her dream the previous night began to filter back to her. She sat bolt upright, tearing herself away from him, and punched him heavily in the shoulder.

He came awake with a roar of protest. "What the hell was that for?"

"You were in my dream last night!" she hissed angrily. "What did you do to me?"

"That's gratitude for you!" he returned sarcastically, rubbing his shoulder. "You had a good sleep, didn't you?"

But Tejana was completely freaked out by the thought of the Master wandering around in her head. "What...did...you...DO?"

"It's just an old trick of the mind I learned at the Academy," he said in a curt voice. "Like you said, there are no children on Gallifrey. You're not the first to have nightmares."

Surprised, Tejana detected almost a sense of hurt in his tone. Belatedly, she realised he had actually been trying to help, that for once he had done something nice with no ulterior motive. With a pang, she wondered what his nightmares had been as a child.

Somewhat taken aback, she whispered, "I'm sorry, Koschei. Thank you."

His old name had slipped involuntarily from her lips and at first she expected him to round on her in a fury. However, instead he chose to ignore it.

"Yeah, well," he said coldly, stepping out from the cave and stretching his arms above his head. "It was the only way for me to get some decent sleep. I'd already seen the show, I didn't need a repeat performance."

Tejana flinched at the brutal words, shame stinging her afresh. Tears prickled her eyes as she turned away from him. _Stars, he knew how to hurt! _She hardly ever cried. It infuriated her that she had allowed him to get to her.

They travelled closely together that day. It was a matter of necessity, as The Matrix had chosen to throw rain at them. Tejana had come to think of The Matrix as a living entity. They were not playing the Game of Rassilon as such – there was no competition, no Daleks or Cybermen trying to block their way to the Tower. Instead it seemed as if they were playing against The Matrix itself as it did everything in its power to oppose their progress. Darkness, cold, heat and snow...even the sudden re-emergence of her most dreaded nightmare. She knew that in reality the bizarre weather patterns were probably a direct result of The Matrix beginning to break down, but somehow it all seemed designed to prevent them reaching the Tower of Rassilon.

Today it was rain...and _such _rain! Water fell from the sky in a teeming, impenetrable curtain, drenching them to the skin in an instant. The already treacherous landscape suddenly became lethal, the visibility reduced to almost nothing, the rocks underfoot slippery, the dangerous bogs everywhere. They struggled on together, making little progress, but knowing they had to try. Somewhere in Creation, the Doctor was holding _The Moment. _Once it was released, they would die.

The Master's seemingly limitless strength was beginning to wane. The awful blue-white skull haunted his features more and more often, glowing eerily through the rain. Tejana gave him almost all her nutrition tablets, hoping that the food could restore some of his seeping energy.

At one point, she wondered if somehow she had actually died in the Doctor's TARDIS that day and if she had ended up in Hell with the Master. Maybe they were doomed to forever press forward but never to reach their destination. It was a silly thought, born of mental and physical exhaustion, but it made her shiver nonetheless.

As night fell and the temperature dropped, the rain began to freeze and became snow, a blizzard of flakes closing in around them as they huddled together like two drowned rats under a small overhang of rock. There was no chance to make a fire and any fuel they could have found would have been too wet to use. The Master seemed a little better, the extra intake of food having rejuvenated him yet again.

"We have to get out of these wet clothes," Tejana muttered, stripping off the sodden material of her jacket as she spoke. "Or we'll be ice cubes by morning."

The Master gave a rasping cough. "If you wanted to get me naked, you should have just said so on _The Valiant_. Much more comfortable there," he said with obvious effort.

"Like that was ever going to happen,"she retorted grimly, continuing to remove her clothes.

Back on _The Valiant_, she would have been much more likely to have slit her wrists rather than go anywhere near him naked. Even more likely to have slit _his _wrists, if she had got the chance. But right now, survival was the only thing that mattered.

With a tired chuckle, he shed his own saturated apparel and then they hunkered down under the blankets together, skin to skin.

"You know, if I wasn't so shattered..." he began mockingly.

"Oh, shut up!" she gritted out, desperately trying to ignore how good his heated skin felt against her own.

The Master laughed again. "Oh, if only the Doctor could see us now!" he said tauntingly. "And what _would _Captain Jack say?"

Tejana did not answer. She didn't even want to think about what Jack would say. Especially if he ever knew how her traitorous body was responding to the Master's nearness. _Gods, the Universe was unfair_, she thought miserably. _Why couldn't she feel this way with Jack – good, kind, strong, __handsome, heroic Jack?_ Kissing Jack was very pleasant, very enjoyable. But there was no thrum of sexual tension in her blood, no hot spirals of wanting bursting in her belly...no, she had to go and feel that for a murdering megalomaniac.

Maybe if she tried harder with Jack, it would come. He had said he would be patient...

_Jack's not a Time Lord_, a little voice said in the back of her mind. _Just like Turlough wasn't a Time Lord._

She had lived with Turlough on his planet Trion for a while. She had been more or less happy, more or less content, until the Daleks had come, before the Time War had even started. She had gone to Gallifrey to ask for help, sure that President Romana, who had once been like a mother to her, would not turn her away. But back then Gallifrey had been committed to its policy of non-intervention. Now, like so many other casualties of the Time War, Trion was gone and Turlough was dead. Tejana had been one of the first volunteer Time Lord warriors when War finally broke out. The pain and the hate had consumed her, turning her into a killing machine, her only thought being the next Dalek she could destroy. She had slaughtered thousands, maybe even millions, until the Battle of the Ramah Phalanx had created a massive field of temporal instability and she had been sucked into E-Space.

Resolutely she turned her thoughts away from the black memories, not wanting to revisit the dark night of her soul. Maybe she and the Master weren't that different after all.

_Was the attraction that simple, _she wondered, _just a longing to be with your own kind? To have all your background and formative principles of your life understood without ever having to explain? To be able to speak without thinking in your native Gallifreyan, to someone of equal intelligence? To hear the comforting, familiar sound of another double heartbeat in your ear? Just to _belong?

If that was it, she was in big trouble. The only two Time Lords left in the Universe were her father and the Master. She was not exactly spoiled for choice.

At last the exhaustion overtook her and she fell asleep. Immediately she found herself back in the dark cell of her nightmare. She was not surprised – the dream seemed determined to haunt her with monotonous regularity. What did surprise her was that she instantly felt the Master's silent presence in the shadows. Apparently, despite their quarrel of the morning, he had decided not to desert her after all. He didn't say anything, but he didn't have to. The faint sound of the drums guarded her sleep and the nightmare vanished before it began.

* * *

The next morning, the rain had disappeared. It was completely still, eerily so. Already, heat was beginning to to radiate from the ground, steaming from soil which had been water-logged the day before. Moving quietly, careful not to wake the Master, Tejana stood and wrapped one of the blankets around herself as a form of temporary clothing. She gathered up their discarded garments from the night before and laid them out on the rocks to dry. In the rising humidity, they would be ready to wear again in a very short time.

Her head felt muzzy, as though it was stuffed with cotton wool. _All this extra sleep_, she thought with irritation. Time Lords didn't need need nearly as much sleep as humans and normally Tejana tended to avoid it as much as possible. If you didn't sleep, you didn't dream. But the physical demands of travel within The Matrix had made it an unavoidable necessity over the last few days.

Her hair had come loose and was flowing in a heavy mass down her back. She tried to tidy it, but she had lost the band she used to secure her practical plait. With a disgusted sigh, she decided she would just have to put up with the tangled mess.

She glanced over at the Master. He hadn't stirred, his figure slumped against the rock at his back, limp and still. _Too still, _she thought with sudden fear. She couldn't remember hearing his two hearts beating when she awoke. Was he even breathing?

Hurriedly she retraced her steps and fell to her knees beside him, grasping him by the shoulder.

"Koschei!" she cried. "KOSCHEI!"

"Uhhhhh...wassarmatter?" he mumbled, shaking his head like a wet dog as he awoke. "Ana, what's going on?"

Tejana gave a great sigh of relief. The Master saw the look on her face and correctly interpreted the reason for it. He began to laugh derisively.

"Ohhhhhh no, sweetheart. You don't get rid of me _that _easily."

Still shaken, Tejana lost her temper. "Oh, _bite me_!" she snarled, automatically using one of Jack's favourite comebacks.

The Master's smile widened, his whiskey-coloured eyes intent as they slowly and deliberately wandered over her, taking in the long, loose curls that tumbled down her back, the flushed cheeks and the carelessly-draped blanket. "Looking the way you do right now, that's a very tempting invitation," he drawled.

Grumpily muttering the Gallifreyan equivalent of "Asshole!", Tejana turned her back on him and stomped back over to where she had left her clothes. Stars, she couldn't wait to get dressed, she felt far too exposed and vulnerable. His low laughter followed her, infuriating her further.

Clutching the blanket close to her, she looked out to the horizon. Rassilon's Tower was close now, only about a day's journey away. Soon they would be out of this hell pit. Soon she would be free to find the Doctor, free to go back to her life with Torchwood and hopefully Jack. _Free to forget that the Master had ever existed._

The morning was completely silent. There wasn't a breath of wind and not a thing moved. Somehow it bothered her. She couldn't put her finger on it exactly, but it was almost like the stillness at the eye of a hurricane, unnatural and ominous. The usually bright orange sky was more of a dirty bronze colour today, an unattractive, almost repellent hue. As she watched, the cloud on the horizon behind the Tower of Rassilon began to roil, a slight green tinge beginning to stain the sky.

"Something's wrong!" she said abruptly.

Wrapped in his own blanket, the Master padded barefoot over to join her.

"Look at the sky!"

He glanced up and his face hardened. "Get dressed, Ana, we're moving _now_!"

"What is it?" she demanded. "Koschei? _What is it?_"

"The beginning of the end," he bit out. "On the Last Day of Gallifrey, the Daleks breached the Great Dome. The Time Lords dropped like flies trying to defend the Citadel. Every time one of them dies, there's less mental energy holding this place together. The Matrix is beginning to close in on itself. Now let's go!"

Even as he spoke, the earth tremors began, the ground shaking violently beneath their feet. They threw their clothes on and began the last stage of their trek with renewed urgency. Throughout the day, the green tinge in the sky grew and grew, the black clouds boiling as though a rift were opening in the heavens. The quaking ground continued sporadically, making it difficult to keep their footing and sending showers of dangerous scree rolling down the crags towards them. By afternoon, flashes of glaring red lightning began to play between the clouds, glowing like a fireworks display across the darkening sky. Rolls of ferocious booming thunder cut through the silent air, startling in their intensity.

They were so close to the Tower now. They could see it looming ahead of them, still tantalisingly about an hour out of reach.

Tejana felt fear clawing at her like a rabid animal. She tried to tell herself that it was only a thunderstorm, but it felt so unnatural, so wrong. The flashes of red lightning seemed somehow malevolent. They hurt her head, deep inside. She could sense each one coming, long before it visibly manifested in the sky. She tried to focus on something else to block out the psychic disturbance.

_Who would unto Rassilon's Tower go, must choose: above, between, below..._

The old Gallifreyan nursery rhyme played over and over in her mind, the rhythm keeping time with her feet as she stumbled along.

And then the fire began to rain from the heavens. As though bored of playing among the clouds, the lightning strikes began to pepper the ground, with devastating effect. Each searing bolt impacted with a huge explosion of red sparks, destroying, obliterating, anything in its path. Tejana could see each dazzling streak in her mind, burning like acid, before it struck the ground. It felt like some malignant god was using them for target practice as the lethal fire fell all around them.

"We have to get under cover!" the Master shouted. "Over there!"

He was pointing to another rocky outcrop with a narrow ledge jutting out from it, just wide enough to shelter under. He was slightly ahead of her, leading the way towards the outcrop, when Tejana sensed the next lightning bolt. In that split second, she understood exactly where it was about to land.

"_NO!_" she screamed, instinctively taking a flying leap right at the Master. They hit the ground together, rolling over and over. The deadly blaze of crimson energy speared into the earth with a massive concussion, right where the Master had been an instant before.

Tejana ended up lying full length on top of him, the breath knocked out of her. Dizzily, she looked down into his face to make sure he was all right. She saw no gratitude there in the scarlet light, or shock, or fear, or any other emotion she might have expected. Instead, she saw his eyes harden with desire, intense and savage and raw. Sudden answering need slammed through her body with the force of an express train.

Then they were rolling again, his arms tightly around her, as he propelled them over the last few feet to the relative safety of the rock overhang. When they finally came to rest again, the Master was lying on top of her. Without hesitation, his mouth came down on hers with crushing force, his kisses long and deep and urgent, as though he had been waiting a very long time for her. Tejana didn't even try to fight it. Instead, she dug her fingers into his back to hold him closer, moulding her softness to his aggressive strength, willingly giving him everything he demanded. Feeling her instantaneous response, he gave a low growl of pleasure, deep in his throat. The Master was _so _hungry, but this time not for food.

For the second time, their clothes were thrown aside, the Master's hands tracing fire over her skin. Tejana moaned as his mouth followed, her body shuddering at the exquisite sensations, the searing ache inside her growing hotter and hotter and hotter. The terrible storm still raged overhead in impotent fury, but she no longer heard it. The Master was her whole world and everything in it, there was nothing else. The fire was building to a blazing crescendo, both of them becoming more and more desperate with their movements. Tejana couldn't get enough of his touch. Oh gods, she needed..._she needed_...

"Please!" she begged helplessly. "_Please!_"

The Master paused and looked down into her face, his breathing shallow, his eyes dark with lust.

"Say my name!" he ordered roughly.

She knew what he wanted to hear. Somewhere in the back of her mind she knew that this was insane, that she should never allow it, never give in, but she was past caring. She could hear the drums now, his never-ending drums, throbbing in her blood, pounding in counterpoint to their accelerated heartbeats.

"Say it!" he urged again, as much a plea as a demand.

"_Mekhil_!" she cried, instinctively speaking their native Gallifreyan. "MASTER!"

He gave a hoarse shout of triumph and then, with one hard thrust, he was inside her. Arching in ecstasy under him, she surrendered herself fully and he filled the empty places in her body and her mind and her soul.


	7. Chapter 7

**CHAPTER SEVEN**

The Tower loomed above them, rising obsidian-dark into a sky still tainted with the sick, green light, its peak crowned with the distinctive crescent shape, the legendary symbol of Rassilon. Dark clouds still boiled overhead and the crimson lightning still danced, but the flaming fire bolts had finally ceased, enabling the two Time Lords to reach their objective at last.

Tejana stared numbly up at the forbidding monolith. She was still stunned by the enormity of what she had allowed to happen between herself and the Master. When Time Lords mated, it was a much more intense experience than any human could ever understand. More than just a physical union, it was a complete fusion of body and mind. Every cell in her body felt alive and yet, paradoxically, fully sated. She couldn't comprehend it. He was _the Master_. How could something so fundamentally wrong feel so totally and unalterably right?

She stole a glance at the Master as he stood beside her, his face unreadable as he contemplated the Tower.

_It didn't matter_, she told herself wildly. _It didn't change a thing. _They were here now, they had reached the Heart of the Matrix. With any luck they would soon escape this miserable place and could go their separate ways, no harm done.

Deep inside, she knew that it would never be that simple. The Master's last kiss before they resumed their journey had been hard and controlling. There had been no tenderness, only possession. He might joke about Rassilon's tendency to put his name on everything, but it was no secret that the Master had ownership issues of his own. And for him, ownership of the Doctor's daughter would be sweet irony indeed.

"Who would unto Rassilon's Tower go, must choose: above, between, below," he recited suddenly, startling her out of her thoughts. "That's how it goes, isn't it? Only, this Tower has no doors, above, between _or _below. How are we supposed to get in?"

"I don't know," she answered. "It's only a replica of the real Tower, a virtual construct. Maybe the rhyme doesn't apply?"

"Well, we're running out of time," he said grimly. "There has to be an entrance somewhere. I'm going to take a look around the base."

Before she could protest, he disappeared into the gloom, leaving her alone in the deepening night. Tejana shivered, wrapping her arms around herself. This had to be one of the most eerie places in the Universe. The real Death Zone on Gallifrey had been bad enough, but The Matrix version was worse by far. She hoped the Master wouldn't be long, she was beginning to imagine voices in the mist.

No, not voices..._singing_! Tejana stiffened, listening hard as she tried to identify the faint, musical noise. The song was wordless, lilting and lovely, enticing and familiar. With a flood of joy, the Time Lady recognised the ageless sound. It was inaudible to the ear, but was singing directly to her mind, a glorious paean of welcome.

Gently, reverently, she she laid her hand on the slippery, glassy surface of the Tower of Rassilon, rejoicing in the instant communion she found there.

"Oh, the stars be thanked!" she whispered emotionally, automatically speaking the formal High Gallifreyan the other entity would understand. "Mother, I greet thee with all honour and gratitude."

Just then, the Master re-emerged from the shadows, having failed to find any opening in the base of the Tower. He was by her side in a heartbeat, alarmed by her rapt, unseeing face, the tears on her pale cheeks glittering in the vermilion flashes of light from above.

"What is it?"

In answer, she took his hand and pressed it to the wall, flattened under her own. "Listen, Koschei. Just listen."

For a long moment he frowned in concentration, but then his eyes widened in wonder. "But...she's a TARDIS. The whole Tower of Rassilon...it's a TARDIS!"

"One of the originals, older by far than even the Doctor's Type 40," Tejana said excitedly. "She's an Ancient One, one of the Mothers of Time Travel. There never was a Time Corridor, _this _is Rassilon's back door, his own TARDIS, physically materialised into The Matrix, millennia ago."

"His 'Pathway to the Stars'!" the Master exclaimed, a grin of delight forming on his face. "Wow, her Chameleon Circuit must be amazing to pull off something this size!"

"She recognises us as Time Lords and welcomes us," Tejana continued, her senses interpreting the flood of song. "She is happy we are here. She has been alone for a long, long time."

"But will she let us in?"

Tejana intensified the focus of her mind, sharpening her psychic link with the ancient time machine. Keeping the Master's hand joined with her own on the exterior of the TARDIS, she spoke again in High Gallifreyan. "Mother, I am Tejanakaturadilena, a Time Lady of Gallifrey. Here with me is Koschei, also known as the Master, a Time Lord of Gallifrey. We are in dire need. In the name of the Imprimatur of Rassilon, a right granted to us at birth, we beg solace and sanctuary within your doors."

At first, nothing happened and Tejana began to fear that her request had been rejected. But then, silently, the previously-invisible double doors swung open, revealing a warmly-lighted interior.

"Oh yes!" the Master crowed. "_YES_!"

Seizing Tejana's hand, he pulled her inside the TARDIS and the doors closed behind them. They found themselves in a prehistoric console room. Everything appeared to be made from stone, from the roundels in the walls to the hexagonal instrument console itself. Even stranger, to the side of the room was a small dais supporting an ornate stone chair, which looked suspiciously like a throne.

The Master rushed forward with the excitement of a child with a new toy. "Yes, this is _fantastic_!"

He circled the console, jubilantly flipping switches and examining monitors. Tejana hovered uneasily near the doors. The song of the TARDIS had subsided to a contented hum in the back of her mind, infinitely familiar from her days in the Doctor's time machine. However, all at once, the bad feeling she had experienced back at the Seventh Gate assailed her again, making her feel sick to her stomach.

The Master finally noticed her lack of enthusiasm.

"Come on, Ana! We're home free!" he exclaimed. "We have a TARDIS! The whole of time and space at our command!"

He laughed triumphantly, stretching his arms wide to encompass the room. "And not just any TARDIS, _Rassilon's _TARDIS! _Look_ at this place. I mean, who has a throne in their console room? And people say _I'm_ a megalomaniac!"

"Don't you think it's kind of...creepy?" she asked tentatively, at a loss to describe her foreboding any other way.

"You've been living with those stinking humans too long, Ana, you're beginning to think like them," the Master returned in a careless tone, his attention on the console once more. "I could do with some help here if we're going to get this old girl flying again."

Reluctantly she moved over to the navigation terminal and began to review the archaic systems. The Master began tinkering with the dimensional stabilisers and the de-materialisation circuit, running diagnostic test after diagnostic test on all the essential systems, readying the ancient ship for its first flight in a thousand years. Silently, they both worked in perfect sync, each concentrating fully on the task at hand.

"Well?" Tejana asked eventually. "Will she fly?"

Whatever else he was, she knew that the Master was one of the most brilliant temporal engineers Gallifrey had ever known.

"Some of the systems are pretty basic, obviously," he answered absently. "But for the most part they are fully operational. Rassilon must have kept up his maintenance, lucky for us. The lateral balance cones will need some work before take-off though."

"Here," she said briefly. "Use this."

With that, she tossed him the laser screwdriver. He caught it deftly with one hand and raised his eyebrows inquiringly.

"I never bothered to implement isomorphic controls," she said defensively. "I lied."

The Master gave her a mocking grin and disappeared under the TARDIS console.

"Five minutes!" she heard him promise. "And then we're out of here."

She began to program in the coordinates for 21st century Earth. She knew the Master probably wouldn't be too happy with that destination, but she wanted to go home, the only home she had with Gallifrey gone. After that, he could go wherever he liked.

That was when things began to go very wrong. It began with a creeping, insidious paralysis which coiled up her legs like a serpent and swiftly enveloped her arms, effectively rendering her limbs motionless.

"Koschei!" she cried, struggling futilely.

"Five minutes!" came his muffled voice from beneath the console.

"Koschei, I can't move!"

Alerted by the urgency in her tone, he straightened immediately and took in the situation at a glance.

"Try to relax, Ana," he instructed. "It's a stasis field. If I can set the screwdriver to the right frequency, I can disable it."

But he had hardly taken more than a few steps toward her when his own body stiffened, the screwdriver falling uselessly from his frozen fingers.

"_On your knees, Children of Gallifrey!_" a rich, rolling voice echoed coldly through the console room. "_Kneel to greet your Lord President!_"

Compelled by the force of the stasis field, the two Time Lords found themselves kneeling side by side, facing the stone dais. There was implosion of brilliant white light, so bright they had to close their eyes. When their vision returned, they saw a figure seated on the throne-like chair, garbed in the flamboyant red robes of the Lord President of Gallifrey. On his handsome greying head he wore the Matrix Circlet, or the "Crown of Rassilon", enabling him to mentally manifest within The Matrix. His leonine features were hard and arrogant, his eyes were like chips of ice.

"_Rassilon_!" the Master spat, as though the name were poison in his mouth.

"Welcome, my Lord Master, my Lady Tejana," Rassilon said ominously. "Welcome to my domain. I have been waiting for you."

Both Tejana's hearts sank like stones. Oh stars, they had been so close to escape, so very close!

"Waiting for us?" she queried haughtily. "What does that mean? If you knew what we were doing, why didn't you kill us back on Gallifrey? Why wait until now?"

Rassilon gave a small smirk. "That would not have been in accordance with my purpose."

"_What _purpose?" the Master demanded.

"To restore Gallifrey and redeem her people" the Lord President announced. "We will return to the Universe to enact the ultimate sanction, as was always intended."

"Wait a minute, haven't we already been through this once before?" Tejana said tiredly. "The Doctor and the Master stopped you, right?"

Rassilon's stony eyes kindled with anger. "Did you really think it would end there?" he hissed through clenched teeth, spittle flying through the air. "I _will not _die! It was I who brought you here, Lady Tejana. The massive emission of artron energy from the Doctor's regeneration temporarily weakened the fabric of the space/time continuum in his vicinity, enabling me to seize control of the time device you wear. I knew you would never allow the Master to be tortured to death, for the Doctor's sake. I knew the only means of escape available to you was through the Seventh Gate into The Matrix. All was foreseen, all was prepared for. Now you will both serve my purpose."

"Oh yeah?" the Master sneered. "And just how are we supposed to do that?"

Rassilon smiled unpleasantly. "The Time Lock prevents me physically entering The Matrix. I am permitted only a mental manifestation such as this. But if I were to use the Crown of Rassilon to transfer my consciousness to a living body already present within The Matrix, the Time Lock could no longer constrain me. Only three Children of Gallifrey survived the Time War, only three who were not subject to the Time Lock and could pass through the Seventh Gate. The Doctor's body is weakened from regeneration, the Master's body is diseased and dying. But _you_, Lady Tejana, you are young and strong. You will be the vessel I honour with my consciousness, you will become the salvation of the Time Lords!"

Tejana felt a dull roaring in her ears as she realised just how perfectly she had been manipulated.

"It won't work," the Master said flatly. "She'll never submit willingly to you. And you can't kill her – a Time Lord body will automatically reject the consciousness of its murderer, any child knows that, it's basic Transfer Theory."

Rassilon's satanic smile widened even further. "Ah, but that is your part to play, my Lord Master."

The Master's head shot up. "_Mine?_"

"You are dying. Even as we speak, your body fails," the Lord President continued, his voice laced with contempt. "I offer you life and power. Together we will smash the Time Lock. You will stand at my right hand as we lead our people forth to rend the very fabric of the Universe. Like the legendary Phoenix, the Time Lords will rise anew from the very ashes of Time itself!"

"And all I need to do is kill Tejana for you?" the Master said thoughtfully, staring at his trapped companion with narrow-eyed speculation.

"A simple matter! You have killed countless times before," Rassilon responded, waving his hand in a dismissive gesture. "The daughter of Gallifrey's greatest enemy, the Doctor, the traitor who committed genocide against his own people. It is no more than fitting than her death should be the means of our salvation."

_That's it then, game over, _Tejana thought hollowly, watching the Master's face. _Checkmate_. Life and power, the two things the Master held most dear. Rassilon had planned the perfect trap, knowing that she would save the Master and knowing equally well that the Master would betray her as soon as it became advantageous to do so. She had not missed the Master's use of her full name. Ana, the companion in adversity, had vanished, to be replaced by Tejana, the disposable pawn.

The Lord President had already won.

_I'm sorry, Doctor, _she murmured silently, _So very sorry._


	8. Chapter 8

_**Author's Note: Just another salute to my sole reviewer, madasmonty, for the continuing encouragement. It means a lot to know that at least one person out there is reading and enjoying my fic, so cheers champ X!**_

* * *

**CHAPTER EIGHT**

Tejana took a deep breath and gathered her courage. She had begged the Master for his touch, but she would never beg him for her life. Proudly, as a Time Lady should, she raised her chin and looked her death in the eye.

His brown gaze locked with hers for an endless moment, his expression unreadable.

Then, without warning, he began to laugh wildly, the insane, manic merriment she had heard so often on board _The Valiant_. A shiver wound itself up her frozen spine. When the Master laughed like that, he was truly frightening.

Even Rassilon seemed taken aback, his eyebrows drawing together in a frown. "My Lord Master, our time grows short. What is your answer?"

The laughter ceased abruptly. "My answer..." the Master said, his tone as venomous as a deadly snake. "...is _no_!"

The shock of his words was so great, Tejana almost stopped breathing. A wave of disbelief overwhelmed her. Survival had always been the Master's prime directive. How was it possible for him to contravene the conditioning of a lifetime?

The look of dismay on Rassilon's thunderous countenance would have been comical in any other circumstances. "I advise you to reconsider, my Lord Master!" he warned. "Your life hangs in the balance!"

"_I said no!" _the Master reiterated sharply, like the lash of a whip. "Thought you had it all worked out, didn't you, Rassilon? You think just because you put these drums in my head you can control me? _I am the Master!_ Nobody controls me. So why don't you stick your great purpose up your yin-yang?"

Rassilon stood majestically, towering over his captives, an incandescent figure of pure rage.

"Your insanity has finally destroyed your once brilliant mind!" he snarled, his fury almost choking him. "And I have no further use for you!"

Inexorably he raised the gauntlet of power he wore on his left hand and launched a bolt of blue energy at the Master. Translated into physical form through the Crown of Rassilon, the blast struck the renegade Time Lord squarely in the chest, shattering the stasis field which held him and hurling him backwards until he struck the far wall with a bone-shattering impact.

An involuntary howl of anguish ripped from Tejana's throat. "_NO!_"

Rassilon staggered weakly, clutching at the arms of his throne for support. He was clearly still incapacitated from his previous fight with the Master on Earth. A thread of hope tugged at Tejana. The President had been too weak to disintegrate the Master's body. Perhaps there was some chance he still lived? Frantically she tried to search for his mind, desperately seeking some spark of life in the crumpled form lying face down on the floor. But the stasis field blocked every attempt, no matter how hard she tried, and she could feel nothing.

"Cease your efforts, Lady Tejana," Rassilon said coldly, resuming his seat. "He is dead. One would think you had some affection for that diseased madman."

Tejana stared at him, white-faced, her eyes burning with rage and grief. "_You _created him, Rassilon! You crippled him as a child, tormented him all his life, set him up to become a scourge to all the peoples of the Universe!"

Rassilon shrugged impassively. "It was necessary."

"_Necessary?_" she spat incredulously. "When I was at the Academy on Gallifrey, we revered you, almost worshipped you, like a god. That was why the Time Lords deposed President Romana and resurrected you when the Time War began to go badly, because from childhood we had been taught to venerate you and they thought you could save us. But _look _at you...you couldn't stop the Daleks, you couldn't stop the Doctor and now the Master has bested you. _You're nothing but a pathetic old man!_"

"_I AM THE LORD PRESIDENT OF GALLIFREY!_" Rassilon roared. "_YOU __WILL__ RESPECT ME!_"

"Gallifrey is dead," she replied viciously. "And so are you."

Rassilon's face twisted with wrath. "You _dare _to condemn me in your righteous pride, and yet you know _nothing_!" he hissed. "So, then, traitor-spawn, come join with me and witness for yourself the ruin your accursed father has wrought!"

The compulsion of the stasis field tore Tejana to her feet and suddenly she was standing on a precipice in the Mountains of Solace and Solitude, overlooking the Continent of Wild Endeavour and the Citadel of the Time Lords. The rational part of her mind knew that she was still standing in the TARDIS console room, that this was nothing but a vision generated by the Crown of Rassilon. But, vision or not, it felt very, very real as she looked out and saw all of Gallifrey spread before her, from Mount Perdition to the Sea of Possibility and even further to the distant Death Zone. Like a god, she was omniscient, she could see every detail, every aspect, nothing was hidden.

"The Doctor has used _The Moment_," Rassilon said bitterly. "Now shall you see what he, the Great Betrayer, has not the courage to face, cowering in his TARDIS half a universe away. Now shall you see the fall of mighty Gallifrey, the obliteration of the Shining World of the Seven Systems. Behold, Gallifrey _burns_!"

Tejana gazed out over the once beautiful, once familiar terrain of her home world and found herself weeping slow tears of sorrow and loss as she saw the desolation that remained. The spectacular orange sky was now corrupted to a filthy obsidian colour, a colossal pall of smoke spreading across the land. Great gouts of fire screamed through the deteriorating atmosphere, impaling the ground below. A rain of hot ash was falling as the mountains themselves quaked and groaned.

Gigantic rents opened in the surface of the dying planet, vast columns of steam spiralling up to the ruined sky. An inferno belched from the riven summit of Mount Perdition, a slow cascade of lava vomiting forth to stream down the long slopes of the estates the young Koschei had once called home, the magnificent fields of long red grass now nothing but a memory.

The silver leaves of the boundless forests would shine no more like fire when the suns of Gallifrey rose in the south, for now they burned in truth, consumed by a holocaust of flame stretching as far as the eye could see. A choking mantle of brimstone layered the air with a foul stench, putrid beyond belief.

The once stunning Dome of the Citadel, which had dazzled all-comers for millennia, had been smashed by repeated attacks from the Dalek fleet. Enormous shards rose into the polluted sky, jagged reminders of the breathtaking canopy that had so recently stood there. A litter of wreckage debased the snowy plains at the foot of the Citadel, the remnants of Dalek saucers destroyed by the Time Lord defenders. The Citadel itself was crumbling, the long-held protection of the Dome gone, pounded into annihilation by the implacable enemy, laid open now to the destructive forces of _The Moment_. Fire blazed hungrily from the graceful spires, the ancient buildings collapsing and melting into nothingness.

"Our people die!" Rassilon's accusing voice rang in her ear. "They fall in the fields, in the streets, in the highest reaches of the Citadel itself. The common Gallifreyans call in their extremity to the Time Lords for help, but we have no succour to offer them. They flee, but there is nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. This the Doctor has done, genocide against his own people, slaughterer of his own kin. Do you feel pride now, Time Lady?"

Tejana watched in absolute horror, the atrocities she saw carving themselves in anguish into the very marrow of her bones. People running screaming from the hell that poured from the corrupted sky; people dying in agony in the conflagrations which erupted without warning from the ground; people crushed beneath the collapsing buildings as they fell into oblivion; the dead and the dying trampled in the streets as the citizens fled seeking shelter that did not exist. Children died horribly as the Academy was engulfed in a scorching flow of lava, the oldest and greatest institute of learning in the Universe eradicated in an instant.

"No..." she gasped, trying to negate the guilt, the self-loathing, the abomination which filled her. "This isn't his fault. _This isn't his fault!_"

She could see the Doctor's tortured face in her mind. _I had to stop them, Tejana!_

"This is _your _fault, Rassilon, you and the other Time Lords," she forced out. "You would have destroyed not only Gallifrey, but every other planet in the Universe. You would have destroyed Time itself!"

"People you have known all your life, murdered by your father," the Lord President continued relentlessly. "Your own mother, dying in agony..."

And Tejana saw her...Melana, her mother, as she perished in the Citadel, a nightmarish fiery death, pain beyond bearing.

"Stop it! _Stop it!_" she screamed, the very sinews of her soul tearing, rending.

"Only you can stop it," Rassilon told her insistently. "It is not too late. The guilt of _The Moment _will remain with the Doctor for all eternity, but now the onus is yours. While I yet live I can redeem our people. You need only to step off this precipice, give your life willingly to me, and it will stop."

Tejana tried to think, tried to fight, but the horror was overwhelming. Everywhere there was pain, fear, destruction, suffering, torment and death. A huge impalpable wave of preternatural anguish rose from the doomed planet, flaying her mind like a thousand needles, condemning her forever as the child of a traitor.

"Submit to me," Rassilon commanded, his voice mesmerising. "Take the step!"

She could feel her sanity slipping, drowning in the onslaught of frenzied screaming enveloping her mind.

"Take the step!" he said again, his will crushing down on the back of her neck. "Submit. Make it stop."

"_I must take the step,_" she whispered emptily. "_I must make it stop._"

"Yessssss!" he exclaimed exultantly. "Submit!"

Slowly, unconsciously, her right foot lifted off the ground, hovering tremulously over the deadly drop which would send her hurtling down to the burning surface of the world which gave her birth.

"Do it now!" he insisted urgently. "Before it is too late."

But before Tejana could complete the action, a scorching shackle of flame encircled her ankle, forcing her foot back to the ground. Pure, unadulterated agony howled up her leg. The fierce, undeniable pain snapped her back to herself, pulling her right out of Rassilon's mental hell. All at once, she realised just where she was and what she was about to do.

The vision of Gallifrey wavered and disappeared, leaving her standing once more in the TARDIS console room before the Throne of Rassilon. She looked down and saw the Master, his hand clenched savagely around her ankle, a look of grim determination on his wasted face. Somehow he had managed to crawl over and hold her back from taking that one step that would have destroyed Creation forever. His flesh was burning with an opalescent blue glow, the life energy leaking out of him everywhere, every bone in his body glaring through his translucent skin, his touch searing her ankle like a white-hot branding iron.

"_NO!" _Rassilon howled in frustration. "_I WILL NOT DIE!_"

The Master gave one last feral grin. "Guess she's one thing you won't be putting your name on, Rassilon," he gritted out mockingly.

He released Tejana's leg and, with a final bolt of energy from his hand, struck at the Lord President with all his remaining strength. The blast hit the Crown of Rassilon like a shock wave, the shimmering life force reverberating back through the psychic link like a massive burst of lightning to the wearer's brain. Rassilon screeched like a banshee, the Matrix Circlet shattering around his head, the link forever severed. Then he vanished.

The Master collapsed like a broken doll, all his life energy completely drained. Slowly the blue glow faded until there was nothing left, not even a flicker.

For that one, tiny interval in time, there was a complete, deep, empty silence in the TARDIS console room.

And then, Gallifrey exploded, and the Time Lords died, their ancient civilisation winking out like a fragile candle flame in the breeze. Immediately, The Matrix began to unravel, the mental energies holding it together for countless years simply disappearing.

On the view screen, Tejana could see the Time Winds turning the landscape to dust, the erosion beginning at the far edge of the horizon and moving inward at an incredible rate. The TARDIS console room began to judder wildly, throwing its occupants back and forth helplessly. Shaken violently from her shocked torpor, Tejana realised she had mere seconds before the influx of entropy reached the TARDIS. Far away in the distance she heard the desperate clanging of the cloister bell, warning of imminent disaster.

Praying that she and the Master had done enough to make the ship ready, she clung to the hexagonal console, fighting her way to the de-materialisation lever as the TARDIS bucked like a bronco. At last she seized it, slamming it down in one abrupt movement, and the time rotor began to oscillate, the familiar wheezing, groaning sound like music to her ears.

Almost immediately the shaking stopped and the room levelled out. The sonorous peal of the cloister bell faded away and the view screen showed nothing but the calm, star-filled void of space.

Tejana slid to the floor, her eyes closed, sucking in deep breaths of air like a drowning woman. Then, with a sudden exclamation, she was on her hands and knees, looking for the Master. He had been tossed across the room by the gyrations of the TARDIS. He was lying on his back, his face turned away, his arm flung out towards her as though seeking help.

Slowly, painfully, she began to crawl towards him. He couldn't be dead. He was the Master. The Master always came back. But before she could reach him, she felt the vortex manipulator tighten once more on her wrist. In an instant, she knew what was happening. Rassilon was dead, his control over the device was gone. The TARDIS was free of the Time Lock. And now she was about to be snapped back through Time like a stretched rubber band being released.

With a supreme effort she surged forward, throwing herself towards the Master, reaching for his out-flung hand. She felt her fingertips brush his, struggling for purchase, and then the Time Vortex took her into its crushing embrace and she knew no more.


	9. Chapter 9

_**Author's Note**__**:**__** Thanks to LiveLaughLoveListen for your kind review, much appreciated!**_

* * *

**CHAPTER NINE**

She awoke to the grey half-light of dawn. The air felt cool and dewy around her and she could smell the deep, rich aroma of freshly-turned soil. She was lying prostrate on the ground, face in the dirt. Her mind was a swirling, impenetrable cavern of mist. What had happened? Where was she? Why did she feel so sick, so weak, so _wrong_? Had she regenerated or something?

Slowly she became aware of someone crouching beside her, trying to turn her over. She could hear him speaking to her, but his words made no sense. As she rolled on to her back, her eyes striving to focus, she realised she had never seen him before. He appeared to be a middle-aged human, with an open, honest, weather-beaten face. He was wearing a heavy, khaki-coloured jacket which had seen better days.

"Miss? Miss, are you all right?" he asked anxiously, but Tejana simply stared blankly at him.

"Where am I?" she demanded. "Who are you?"

The man shook his head, not understanding the beautiful, lilting Gallifreyan which flowed from her tongue.

"A foreigner, eh?" he said gruffly. "Let's see if we can get you up. You can't stay here."

He put his hand under her arm and attempted to help her rise, only to have her fall back with a fierce gasp of pain. His eyes dropped to her feet and his face blanched white under its ruddy tan.

"Holy Mother of God!" he breathed. "What the hell is that?"

Tejana looked down. Seared into her right ankle, evident under the tattered remains of her trousers, was a dreadful, livid burn in the shape of a hand print, the outline of the fingers clearly defined.

"The Master!" she cried, the memory exploding back into her consciousness. "Where is the Master?"

Still the man did not seem to comprehend.

"The Master!" she repeated, urgently clutching at his arm. "I must find him! I must find the Master!"

Bracing her damaged leg, she struggled to her feet, turning in a circle, hoping against hope that she would locate the black-clad figure lying nearby. But all she saw was an empty field, frosted with the pearly light of the rising dawn.

"I left him!" she whispered in horror. "May the gods forgive me, I left him behind!"

Desperately, she tried to reactivate the vortex manipulator, trying to retrace her journey in reverse.

_**NO CO-ORDINATES AVAILABLE**_, read the screen.

"No! NO! Don't _do_ this to me!" she begged, frantically stabbing at the controls.

_**NO CO-ORDINATES AVAILABLE**_.

_**NO CO-ORDINATES AVAILABLE**_.

"I have to go back! I won't leave him, do you hear me?_ I HAVE TO GO BACK!_" she screamed at the sky.

Then the world began to spin, faster and faster, and then she collapsed into the stranger's arms.

"I have to go back!" she said brokenly, as the blessed darkness enfolded her once more.

* * *

Captain Jack Harkness had been absolutely furious when he had discovered that Tejana had disappeared with his vortex manipulator, effectively stranding him on the planet Zog. Bloody Time Lords, it was what they did best, abandoning him – first the Doctor leaving him on Satellite 5 and now Tejana flying into a temper and deserting him in a rat-hole like Zog. And as to where they both were when the 456 came to Earth, don't even get him started on that one!

But then an extremely anxious Doctor had turned up, with a new face and a new TARDIS, searching for his vanished daughter. Jack had returned to Earth with the Doctor, but neither of them had been able to find any trace at all of the missing Time Lady. Jack's anger had dissipated long since - now there was only escalating worry, particularly since the Doctor had been unable to hide his own concern. Jack had never seen the Doctor at a loss before, but the Time Lord had been unable to come up with any explanation for Tejana's disappearance.

Jack was drinking alone in a Cardiff bar when his mobile rang. He had to put a finger in his other ear to screen out the background noise.

"Hello?"

"Is that...Captain Jack Harkness?" an unfamiliar voice asked hesitantly.

"Speaking."

"Um...you don't know me, Captain Harkness," the man continued carefully. "My name is Jeff Ramadge and I own a farm in Waltham, Kent. The thing is...I think I have one of your friends here with me."

"One of my friends?" Jack repeated, all of his senses snapping alert. "What friend?"

"A young lady, slim build, early twenties, blue eyes, long dark hair," the man rattled off. "She wasn't carrying any ID."

Jack was already reaching for his coat, running for the door. "Is she all right?"

"No," the farmer said bluntly. "I found her in my fields at dawn this morning, unconscious. She came to for a little bit, but she's out to it again now. She's been badly injured, I don't know how. I wasn't sure whether to call the authorities or not, seeing as how she's not local, like. I wouldn't want her to get into trouble if she's not legal. But then my wife found your card in her jacket pocket..."

"You did exactly the right thing, Mr Ramadge," Jack assured him. "I'll be there as soon as possible."

"Only, should I call a doctor?" the man asked anxiously. "She's in a bit of a bad way."

"Don't worry, sir," Jack replied evenly. "I'll be bringing the Doctor with me."

With that he hung up and promptly dialled the confidential number he had been given.

"Doctor? You'd better get back to Cardiff right now. I've found her at last."

* * *

"She's in the guest room upstairs," Jeff Ramadge told the Doctor and Jack as he admitted them into his bright, cheery kitchen. "This is my wife, Janet. She made your friend as comfortable as possible."

"We're very grateful to both of you," the Doctor said sincerely. "Can you tell me what happened?"

The farmer eyed his visitors consideringly. Captain Jack Harkness was a tall, well-built man wearing a World War Two style great coat. Jeff had noticed his wife surveying the handsome Captain appreciatively as soon as they were introduced. He seemed very confident, exactly the sort of person you would expect to be in charge of any situation. And yet, he clearly deferred to his companion, whom he had introduced merely as "The Doctor".

This man appeared very youthful to be a Doctor, but somehow projected a feeling of authority and trustworthiness, even if he did come across as somewhat eccentric in his shabby, old-fashioned tweed jacket and bow tie. Besides, he had some very impressive credentials, which he had shown to Jeff in a little leather wallet.

"I found her in my fields just after dawn this morning," the farmer explained. "At first I thought she was dead, but then she moved. I turned her over and she spoke to me, but I couldn't understand what she was saying. Is it some form of Gaelic she speaks? It's a beautiful language, like music almost..."

The Doctor frowned. Tejana spoke English better than most natives, even without the help of the TARDIS translation circuit. What was she doing speaking what he guessed was Gallifreyan to a human?

"Something like that," he replied, exchanging a worried look with Jack.

"I wasn't sure if she was drunk or ill or had been attacked – so many bad things happen to young people these days," the farmer continued gravely. "Then I saw the injury to her leg. It's like a horrible burn, only in the shape of a hand. I've never seen anything like it before. She kept saying one word over and over. It sounded like 'mekhil'."

The Doctor tensed, his breath drawn in audibly through his teeth.

"Doctor, what is it?" Jack demanded. "What does it mean?"

"It's Gallifreyan. It means 'Master'."

"Goddamit!" Jack swore savagely. "Doesn't that son of a bitch ever die? If he's hurt her, I swear I'll find him and this time he'll pay!"

"You know who did this?" Jeff Ramadge asked confusedly. "Shouldn't we call the police?"

"No," the Doctor said with a quelling glance at his furious companion. "We're just speculating. We don't know anything. Was there anything else?"

"Not really," the farmer replied. "She got really, really upset and kept pushing buttons on that watch thing she was wearing. Then she just passed out again and I brought her here."

"Can we see her please?"

Janet Ramadge led them upstairs and ushered them into a fussily decorated bedroom. Tejana lay deathly still in the large bed, her dark hair spread out on the floral pillow, her face as pale as paper.

"She's so cold..." Janet said in a hushed voice. "I can't get her warm. And her pulse is all over the place, almost like she has two!"

"It's all right, Mrs Ramadge," the Doctor soothed. "She's just...like that."

"The Doctor needs to examine her, Mrs Ramadge," Jack told her, exerting all his considerable charm. "Would you give us a minute?"

Janet looked uncertain. "Well...if you're sure..."

Still smiling, Jack ushered her out and closed the door. When he turned back to the Doctor, his face was deadly serious.

"Is she all right, Doctor? She's been missing for three months. Who knows what that bastard did to her?"

"We don't know the Master had anything to do with this," the Doctor retorted, sitting on the edge of the bed and reaching for his daughter's hand. "Tejana, it's the Doctor, I'm here. Tejana?"

He received no response.

"Her pulses certainly are erratic, even for a Time Lady," the Doctor said worriedly. "And her mind's completely closed, almost rolled into a small ball like an animal. I've never seen her like this before. She's been severely traumatised."

"And her leg?"

The Doctor moved aside the bedclothes. Tejana was dressed in a pair of flannelette pyjamas about four sizes too big, clearly belonging to the farmer's wife. Gently, he moved the trouser leg aside and he and Jack stared at the hideous burn.

"Oh my God!" Jack gasped. "What happened to her?"

"I don't know," the Doctor replied, his face rigid with shock. "But I'm going to find out."

Just as he spoke, Tejana's eyes sprang open. Her gaze was wild, delirious and unseeing. Her hand gripped the Doctor's like a vice and a spate of Gallifreyan rolled off her tongue, breathless and agonised.

"Hush now!" the Doctor cut in softly, speaking in the same language. "Hush, you're safe now!"

For a moment, her eyes seemed to focus on his, as if she heard and understood him. She said one more sentence in a broken, pleading voice and then fell back on to the pillow, senseless once more.

"Doctor? What did she say?" Jack queried urgently.

"I'm not sure, exactly," the Doctor said, deep in thought . "It was a bit jumbled. The first bit was a lot about burning and dying."

"And the last bit?"

The Doctor looked reluctant.

"Doctor, what did she say?" Jack insisted.

"She said, 'Koschei, don't let him put his name on me'."

"What does that mean? And who the hell is Koschei?"

"Koschei is the name the Master used on Gallifrey before he became the Master," the Doctor said. "He hasn't used it in centuries."

"I knew it!" Jack exploded. "He did this!"

"She doesn't even seem to realise she's speaking Gallifreyan. She's talking of burning and dying...I think, somehow, she's been on Gallifrey, on the Last Day," the Doctor muttered, his agile mind rapidly processing the information. "The Master was sent back there with the other Time Lords. She must have found him."

"So what do we do now?"

"Get her back to the TARDIS immediately," the Doctor replied, jumping to his feet. "She needs the Zero Room."

Jack leant down and scooped the unconscious Time Lady into his arms. "What's a Zero Room?"

"A completely neutral environment, a room created by null interfaces, completely cut off from the rest of the Universe," the Doctor said briskly, leading the way out of the room. "She'll need it to heal herself. Had a bit of trouble a while back and had to jettison it. Lucky I thought to put in a new one – never quite know when you might need a Zero Room."


	10. Chapter 10

**CHAPTER TEN**

Tejana was in the Zero Room for three days, reclining astonishingly in mid-air, as though on an invisible bed. The Doctor had explained that this was one of the properties of the Zero Room, the complete absence of furniture contributing to the aura of absolute peace.

"Will she need to regenerate?" Jack asked, restlessly wandering up and down the console room while they waited.

"I don't think so," the Doctor answered, using his sonic screwdriver to fiddle with a tangle of circuitry. "Or she would have done it by now. Physically she seems fine, apart from that burn. I think it's an extreme form of shock. Hopefully the Zero Room will sort that out."

When at last Tejana appeared at the console room door, they were relieved to see that her eyes were lucid once more.

"Doctor! Jack! Whoa, what hit me?" she exclaimed clearly in English. Limping painfully, she moved forward to join them, looking like a little girl in her too-big pyjamas and her hair loose down her back. "And what am I _wearing_?"

Jack gave a shout of delight and enveloped her in a huge bear hug.

Struggling to extricate herself, she said crossly, "OK, what's going on? Doctor, you've regenerated again. And the TARDIS is different...what have I missed?"

The Doctor hugged her as well, which made her even more suspicious, as they were rarely overtly affectionate towards each other.

"You've been gone three months," the Doctor said carefully. "You disappeared from the TARDIS console room while I was regenerating. Don't you remember?"

"Was it the Master?" Jack cut in harshly. "Did he do this?"

Tejana frowned and put her hand up to her forehead. "The Master...died...on _The Valiant_."

"He came back, Tejana, you _know_ he came back!" Jack insisted.

For a moment she swayed on her feet. The Doctor could see the clouds of confusion returning to her eyes.

"Take it easy, Jack!" he admonished, catching her by the arm and leading her to a chair.

"Tejana," he continued gently. "You were delirious. You called me 'Koschei'."

"Koschei..." she repeated, almost inaudibly.

Then her eyes shot frantically to the Doctor's, her hands tightening on his arm, as another torrent of Gallifreyan flooded from her lips.

"Slowly!" the Doctor interrupted. "Speak English, Tejana. You're safe now. Speak English to me!"

Tejana drew in great sobbing breaths as she fought to regain control, trying to block out the horrific images of dying Gallifrey, the piercing memory of the Master lying broken on the floor of Rassilon's TARDIS.

Haltingly, in English, she said, "The vortex manipulator took me back...back to the Last Day of the Time War. The Master...was there. The Time Lords...were going to kill him...for saving your life."

"Please tell me you didn't rescue him?" Jack demanded, throwing his hands in the air in exasperation. "You did, didn't you?"

"Jack!" the Doctor said sharply.

"I tried," Tejana responded bitterly. "But in the end I left him behind."

"What happened, Tejana?" the Doctor asked softly.

And so she told them. Not all of it, just the bits they needed to know, a highly-edited version which skimmed very lightly over the journey to the Tower of Rassilon within The Matrix. That was hers to keep, never to share.

She didn't look at the Doctor as she spoke, not wanting to see the pain in his eyes as she spoke of the fall of Gallifrey.

At the end of her story there was stunned silence.

"Do you see now, Jack? Do you get it? He didn't just save my life, he saved everyone on this planet. And everyone on every planet throughout the whole of time and space. _I'm_ the one who would have killed you all, every last one of you!"

"That's not true!" Jack protested.

"It is!" she said fiercely. "And that's why I have to go back! Doctor, you have to help me! There _has_ to be a way to go back! I can't just leave him there!"

The Doctor looked at her, his eyes full of sadness. "I'm sorry, Tejana, I'm so very sorry. But if there's no record of the coordinates on the vortex manipulator, there's nothing we can do. You know that. He could be anywhere in time and space, there's no way of tracking him down."

Tejana closed her eyes tightly, internalising the angry, pain-filled scream which wanted to burst from her throat. The Doctor was right, she knew he was right, but that didn't make her feel any better.

Slowly, she stripped the vortex manipulator from her wrist and handed it silently to Jack.

Then she climbed brokenly to her feet. "I'm exhausted. I need to rest."

"Tejana..."

"Don't, Doctor," she interrupted tightly. "Please, just...don't."

Unerringly, she made her way to the bedroom which had been hers since she was a young girl and had run away from Gallifrey to travel in the TARDIS with the Doctor. She felt so old, so tired. It was all such a long time ago, so much had happened, so much had gone wrong.

She sank down wearily on the edge of the white wrought-iron bed and looked around the room, filled with a tangle of laboratory equipment and odd souvenirs collected from every corner of the Universe. Whatever devastation the Doctor's latest regeneration had inflicted on the TARDIS, it had not touched her room. It was just as it always had been.

Without having to glance around, she knew the Doctor stood in the doorway behind her.

"You never saw it," she said softly. "What you did to Gallifrey."

It wasn't an accusation. It wasn't even a plea for expiation for her own actions. It was simply a realisation, achingly expressed.

"No," the Doctor acknowledged bleakly, as he came and sat beside her. There was a deep pause and then he held his hand out to her. "Show me."

For a second, she was tempted. To take his hand, to open the mental gate, to share the burden of the canker which had burrowed into her soul..._oh gods, the relief would be so great_! But when she looked at this man she loved so much, the man that now wore a stranger's face, she knew that she could never do it. Rassilon had been right about one thing – the guilt of _The Moment _would remain with the Doctor for all eternity. She would not add to his torment.

"No," she refused, her voice heavy with sorrow. "Never."

The Doctor gazed at her steadily. Then his hand dropped and he gave a single nod, understanding that what she offered him was not a rejection but a precious gift.

"The burn...from the Master's life energy," he said tentatively. "It's gone right to the bone. It's beyond my power to heal. But it turns out that there is still a legitimate Convent of the Sisters of Plenitude on the Lost Moon of Puch. They should be able to help."

Tejana's hand curled protectively around her right ankle, wincing with the pain.

"No," she said again.

"But..."

"NO!" she snapped harshly. Then, seeing the surprise written across his face, her voice softened in apology. "No, really, it's fine."

"Well...you should get some sleep," he said awkwardly, retracing his steps to the door, his voice determinedly cheerful. "Maybe tomorrow you can meet my new companion, Amy Pond. She's brilliant! Scottish...and ginger too, can you believe? Just like Donna. You'll love her!"

Tejana smiled as she lay back on the bed, pleased that her father was no longer trying to travel alone.

"I'm glad. You were too lonely."

The Doctor hesitated and looked back at her.

"Tejana...is there anything else you need to tell me about what happened in The Matrix?"

Her smile slid away and she turned her face to the wall. "There's nothing more."

She heard him draw in a deep breath, as though he was considering pushing the question further. But all he said was, "Rest now then," and he quietly closed the door.

Without the enforced peace of the Zero Room, she didn't expect to sleep. But absolute weariness took the choice from her and she drifted off almost as soon as she shut her eyes.

Seamlessly, inevitably, the nightmare took possession of her mind yet again. This time she welcomed it, eagerly searching the dark for that other presence, praying she would find him there.

But she was alone, more alone in his absence than she had ever been before, and the sequence of the dream marched on unhindered. She fought the guards when they came, violence born out of grief and loss, but to no avail. Again she endured the eldritch torture from her memories, an unchanging parade of events.

However, this time, when the pain grew too much to bear, it was not the Doctor for whom she screamed, but the Master.

And, like the Doctor so long ago, he never came.

She listened in vain for the sound of the drums and, when she woke, her pillow was wet with tears.

_**THE END**_

* * *

_**Author's Note **_

_**For the sequel to this fic, please read: "The Portal of Eternity".**_

_**SUMMARY - **__**Tejana is now living on Earth, trying to put her life back together. Still haunted by the atrocities she witnessed at the Fall of Gallifrey, she is attempting to rebuild Torchwood with Jack. However, Jack is himself still badly damaged from the 456 incident and Tejana's beloved father, the Doctor, has regenerated into a stranger. Worst of all, whether she likes it or not, she is still deeply grieving the loss of the Master. But the destruction of Gallifrey has changed the balance of the Universe, and something ancient and unimaginably evil has returned, something which will change everything...**_  



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